Memories of another
by Zerodone
Summary: Minato doesn't know where he is or how he got there. All he knows is that the rules have changed and certain compromises must be taken if he wishes to survive in this world.
1. Chapter 1

If she was completely honest, Velvet was at least a little bit curious as to why Seres, a Malak of all things, was suddenly helping he in the escape from this prison. But in the end, it didn't really matter to her. As she climbed up the ladder for the first time since she had been thrown into this hole, her mind was already picturing out how she would devour Artorius, slowly if at all possible. She shook her head, as she exited the hole. It was way too soon for her to think of how she would kill Artorius. She had just gotten the chance of a lifetime, possibly the only one she would ever get and she wasn't about to blow it by getting distracted.

The demon woman didn't even wait for Seres to get out of the hole before she made her way through the prison. Just like she had heard from interrogating prisoners before she ate them, there were a couple of cells placed on this floor. Apparently, this was where the prisoners were being kept before they were fed to her. The cells themselves were pretty dark, with only very few light entering them from the torches that hung in the hall. To her mild surprise, the therion saw that one of the cells was occupied.

A boy with blue hair, of all the possible colors, was sitting on the "bed", which was basically nothing more than a few pieces of wood being slapped together and hung on the wall with a couple of chains. Velvet couldn't completely make out the clothes he wore, but they appeared to be especially well made. If she had to guess, she would say the prisoner here once held a noble status or something.

While she was busy making her observation, Seres approached her from behind. The female Malak wondered what had gotten the therion's curiosity and looked into the cell.

"A prisoner? Here?" Seres asked aloud, surprise being present in her voice.

"This is where they keep prisoners they decided to bring down to me," Velvet informed the Malak. "Although this is the first time they wanted to give me a human to eat." Said human looked up, upon hearing the voices. One of his eyes was covered up by his hair. Through the visible one, the two females could see that his eye color was as unusual as his hair color: blue. His facial expression showed no emotion whatsoever. Velvet silently guessed he had either lost hope or made peace with himself. The other prisoners had to guess something was up when every now and then one of them was being dragged down, only to never to return.

"He's not necessarily a human," Seres disagreed. "After all, aren't you the perfect example of a demon, who mostly looks like a human?"

"I guess," Velvet conceded. His weird hair color definitely made him suspicious already in her mind. And if he really was a demon, then he probably could prove useful to her. With inhuman strength, she tore the prison door out of its frame, the noise causing both Seres and the boy to cringe in pain. As the noise echoed throughout the downer levels of the prison, Velvet carelessly threw the door away, which made, even more, noise, as it crashed on the ground. It took a couple of seconds for the noise to dissipate and during that time, Seres kept a watchful eye on their way out, fearing one of the guards might come down and investigate. As luck would have it, no one came down from the upper levels. If anyone heard it, they probably thought it was just Velvet rampaging in her cell. The Malak didn't even want to think about how it was being trapped in a dark, damp and cold cell for three years, without even getting a glimpse of the sun.

"So, what do you say?" Velvet asked the boy. "I let you help, you help me escape."

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Seres asked.

"I'll use any tool at my disposal to get my revenge," the demon simply replied, not turning her gaze from the boy. The boy had been gazing back at the woman, his expression unreadable. Eventually, he just shrugged with his shoulders and put his hands into the pockets of his trousers.

"I guess this means, he's in," Seres said aloud.

"Doesn't look like much, though. I guess he can serve as a meat shield," Velvet stated and walked ahead. Seres and the boy gave each other a look before the latter just shrugged and followed Velvet.

("He's coming with us just like this?") The Malak wondered to herself. ("I better keep an eye on him. He doesn't look like a political prisoner, like the other humans.")

The trio made their way through the hallway that led upwards. Puddles of water were everywhere on the floor, indicating this part of the structure was in serious need of some repairs.

"You will need equipment. There are weapons in the room ahead," Seres informed the other two. The boy nodded, while Velvet just kept walking ahead. The hallway leading upwards proved to be a particularly long one, occasionally taking a left turn. Torches were placed at regular intervals to light the whole way up. One could even see the quality of the walls improving, the higher they got. It seems that the owners of this prison tried to keep it in good condition, with only the downer levels being neglected for some reason or other.

Eventually, the trio arrived at one of a few staircases they would have to take. The path still went on, but at the end of the staircase in front of a wall hung a blue flag with a golden symbol on it. Velvet just passed it, but the boy regarded the symbol for a moment, before running after the black haired woman. Seres opted to stay behind the boy, where she could keep an eye on him.

Finally, they arrived at a door. Seres showed the other two the mechanism of how to open the door and it raised up. In the next room, the first thing that came into the trio's view, were the two dead bodies of the local guard. Judging from the looks of things, the two had died a quick death from getting stabbed in the back of the head.

"No one raised the alarm," Seres commented, not showing the relief in her voice.

"...I can see that" Velvet replied in an almost bored matter.

The blue-haired boy gave both of them a look, yet showed no emotion. He walked in front of the corpses and took a good look at them. The guards were covered from head to toe in what looked like very expensive and extravagant clothing. Their weapons were lying uselessly on the ground, just a couple of centimeters away from their hands. The boy put two fingers under the clothes and against the neck of one of the dead humans, just to be sure. He was still warm, if ever so slightly.

"Having second thoughts?" Velvet asked, ready to eat the boy if he proved to be difficult. He, however, didn't even regard her. Instead, he just walked away from the corpse and deeper into the room, where all kinds of things could be found. Velvet and Seres followed him.

"It looks like they kept prisoners' effects in here," Seres stated as she looked at an entire stack of nothing but personal diaries of prisoners. Velvet in the meantime had gone ahead and grabbed some rope. "Rope. This will be useful," she said and slung it over her shoulder. The blue-haired boy immediately walked in front of her, holding something brown in his hands. It was a backpack and he held it open. Understanding the indication, Velvet put the rope inside. The boy nodded and walked towards a wall, where a variety of weapons had been placed. Figuring that this was the top priority at the moment, Velvet followed him. One particular blade caught her attention, as it was sheathed in a beautiful black sheath.

"Quite a blade," she commented, picking it up. Seres walked over and almost gasped.

"I know that sword… Stormhowl!" she exclaimed, getting the attention of the other two. "What is it doing here?"

"Well, it's too big for me," the demon stated, not caring as to what kind of backstory this blade might possibly have.

"You're not taking it? It's a celebrated masterpiece," the Malak argued.

Now curious himself, the blue-haired boy took the blade into his hands and checked it out. He weighed it a little in his hands, before shaking his head and placing it back against the wall. He didn't know why, but something felt off about that thing.

"And if I can't use it, it's worthless," Velvet argued back. "It seems he understands it." The demon nodded towards the boy, who was busy regarding all of the weapons lined up there. He stopped when he came across a particular blade placed in the corner between the walls. He took said blade and unsheathed it. The weapon appeared to be a well crafted short sword. Upon further inspection, however, Seres could seem some small runes carefully crafted into the blade.

The boy appeared to be satisfied. He nodded to himself and sheathed the weapon, before looking at the rest of the room. The next ten minutes were spent scavenging for anything useful, which would then be put into the backpack. The boy found a belt for his weapon to put on, as well as some strange accessory items of which neither Velvet nor Seres had ever seen. The two figured those things belonged to the boy in the first place since they fit well with his out of the ordinary clothing.

As for Velvet, she found her old gauntlet blade. The gauntlet had seen better days, but it still worked and the blade would only need a little bit of sharpening. As for actual clothing, since the clothes she currently wore were pretty much destroyed, she put herself together a set of whatever she could find. It wasn't much, but it would have to do. The boy had the decency to turn around, as the demon changed out of her old village clothes and put on the weird mixture of armor and red and black clothes. Now she looked like she had just come off a battlefield.

Velvet tested out the mechanism of her gauntlet one more time, after which she sheathed her blade again.

"...All right," she said.

"Are you two ready then?" Seres asked, for which she received a nod from the boy, who had his hands back in his pockets.

All of the sudden, the trio heard a door open and someone ran in. "What's going on here?!" the guard shouted, as he entered the room, already unsheathing his blade and holding his shield up.

Velvet looked at him unimpressed and took on her battle stance. Seres did the same and the boy unsheathed his blade. Seeing as he was outnumbered three to one, the guard carefully retreated to the door, while keeping his eyes on his opponents.

"Be careful. He's no ordinary soldier," Seres warned her two companions. "He's an exorcist orderly."

Either Velvet didn't listen to the warning or she didn't care. She charged right against her enemy, who held his shield tighter. Instead of using her gauntlet blade, Velvet opted to surprise her enemy by using the hidden blades inside her boots. She unleashed a flurry of kicks, which were all blocked by the massive shield of her opponent. The exorcist tried to strike back by smashing his shield against the woman. However, he was halfway through the motion, when the man dropped the shield, due to a sudden pain in his shoulder. Looking to the side, the screaming exorcist found the blue-haired looking straight back at him with an uncaring expression. Before anyone could do anything, Seres had finished charging her fire-arte and shot it right against the man. He was sent flying backward and died screaming.

"You didn't even flinch," Velvet commented in slight surprise, relaxing her stands.

"...I already told you. I am his Malak no longer," Seres said back.

The boy looked at the corpse that was once the guard for a moment or two, before sheathing his sword. Velvet regarded him for a moment, before getting back to business.

"Is there a ship waiting?" she asked Seres.

"So you already know we're on an island."

The boy turned around, upon hearing the two women speak. From the looks of things, he didn't want to be left out of the conversation, even though he remained silent so far.

"Yes, I've learned that this is a prison island for violent criminals and that there are scores of daemons locked away here," the daemon lady confirmed. "Daemons say lots of things when they don't want you to eat them." Velvet balled a fist with her bandaged hand. The boy looked down upon noticing this and tilted his head as if he was thinking about something.

"The prison has docks at both the front and rear entrances. Our ship is on the back side;" Seres explained their escape method.

"Got it. The back docks." Velvet walked out of the room with her two companions following her. It turned out no one put much effort into designing this prison. It was to be expected from a prison for the walls to look bland, but another thing was, so far the path had led the trio just in a straight way. The boy thought that one could easily build a maze-like structure with these kinds of walls.

The trio stopped in front of a staircase, as they found a white glowing orb floating in front of it.

"What is this thing?" Velvet asked straight away.

"That's a special mass of mana," Seres explained. "Think of them as the souls belonging to a family of Malakhim." The boy with the blue hair raised a brow behind said hair. "They appeared all over after the Advent three years ago."

"Another after-effect of the Advent…" the daemon spoke thoughtfully. Now the boy didn't even bother to hide his curiosity, as he looked straight at the two women. However, his unspoken question was left unanswered. "If you collect enough of them, you might be able to solicit the cooperation of a Malak family," the Malakhim lady went on.

"And I'm supposed to take your word for it?" Velvet asked, aggression entering her voice.

"I'm not forcing you to do anything," Seres immediately answered with a tone that indicated, she didn't mean to offend Velvet. "Whether you collect them or not is up to you."

"I might as well pick them up. As I said, I'll use every tool at my disposal." The daemon went ahead took the orb in her hand, before placing it in her own pocket. Surprisingly, the orb appeared to shrink, as if to make sure it actually fit.

"Indeed," the female Malak whispered. "You'll have to if you want your revenge." It appeared as if Seres had been a bit too loud, as Velvet gave the redhead a glare before continuing. The boy followed straight after, trying to ignore the good view the staircases gave him on a certain body part of the woman in front of him.

Once they were on the upper floor, they found another one of those masses of mana and pocketed it in. As they made their way further into the prison, they suddenly stopped, as they heard someone else speak in the distance.

"Guardsmen," Seres whispered. "Two of them."

As silently as possible, the trio pressed themselves against the walls, behind a door frame. Not the best hiding place, but it worked.

"Did you hear?" One of the men spoke, as they passed by. "The path around the island is off-limits now. They say the ground's weak and could collapse."

"The path that goes under the watchtower?" the other guy asked. "That's all right, nobody used it anyways."

"True," the first one agreed. "But it was a nice shortcut to the docks…"

("Well that is convenient.") The blue-haired boy thought to himself. ("Almost too convenient.")

Just as the two guards were to go through a door, a third guardsman arrived on the scene. He had been running.

"A number of guards have gone missing. It would seem we have intruders on the island."

("Intruders? They don't think escaped prisoners might be responsible for this?")

"All exorcists, break into two groups and converge at the front and the rear gates."

"Understood. No one will get passed us."

"Stay sharp," the leader instructed. "The threat could be serious."

"Yes, sir!"

The two guards made their way towards their assigned station, while the leader ran back where he came from. Velvet, Seres and the blue-haired boy came out of their hiding spots, frowning.

"This isn't going to be easy," the Malak commented, looking in the direction the exorcists ran.

"Then we'll need reinforcements of our own. Since we busted out one prisoner already, we might as well help the rest. Where are the cells?"

"They should be on this floor," Seres informed the other two. The frown of the blue-haired boy deepened, as he could already guess what the daemon lady was planning. "You plan on involving the other prisoners?"

"I'll use any tool I have at my disposal," Velvet repeated once again, sending chills down the spine of her two companions. It was fairly obvious that she didn't give the faintest about what would happen to the prisoners, once the riot fully started. Unbeknownst to the two females, the boy balled a fist in his pocket but remained silent otherwise. He followed the two towards the cell blocks and unsurprisingly, they encountered guards.

"Who in the blazes are you?" the female one exclaimed, before charging at them, closely followed by her male colleague. Soon enough, the blue-haired boy found himself engaged in a one to one battle with the male guard. Unlike the white, blue and golden clothes of the exorcists, this guy wore actual armor and was equipped with a short sword and a shield. The blue-haired boy didn't even try attacking from the front. Instead, he used his superior agility and movement speed in order to dodge the attacks of the enemy guard. Said guard wasn't a fool, however. He only took short swings, whenever he thought the boy was in reach and didn't move too much in general. As the boy tried to get behind the guard, said guard just remained on the spot and only turned around during that time. Surprisingly he managed to keep up, meaning the blue-haired boy found himself with no choice but to attack from the front. Under normal circumstances, this would be pretty much suicide, given that the boy neither had a shield nor was he wearing any armor. Luckily for the boy, however, there were two things not normal about him. His mind and his sword.

An eldritch glow suddenly surrounded the blue boy's blade, surprising the guard in front of him.

"What the hell is this?!" he exclaimed in shock. The boy went on the offensive, running at his opponent. The guard raised his shield, seeing the obvious slash from above coming. He planned on blocking the strike and counter-attacking with his own blade. It never came to that. The hellish blade of the boy cut right through the shield, like a hot knife through butter.

"What the…? What in the-?!" Before the guard could find his composure, the boy swung his blade again, perfectly beheading the poor man. His body got dragged to the ground by the heavy armor, while the head rolled away in the corner of the room. A scream of pain indicated the demise of the exorcist, meaning that the trio had won the battle. Once again, the blue-haired boy was staring at the corpses with an uncaring expression.

Velvet and Seres in the meantime had their gazes fixed on the blade of the boy, which still emitted the same eldritch glow.

"Huh, I guess that explains why he is in here," Velvet mused and went to one of the doors. Through the spy hole, she observed the prisoners in their cells. Seres in the meantime had her eyes narrowed underneath her masked. She had a feeling something was off about the boy and now she got her confirmation. She didn't like the feeling she was getting from the blade of his one bit.

"Listen up!" Velvet's voice brought both boy and Malakhim back to reality. "I'm opening every door to every cell! We're getting off this island!" she shouted on top of her lungs. Murmurs began to spread among the prisoners. They got even louder as Velvet explained the plan. The prisoners were supposed to split up into two groups. Each group would storm one of the docks, where a ship was supposed to be waiting for them.

Everyone with two cells of brains could see what Velvet was really planning. The prisoners would distract the guards, while she used the closed off passage to get to the docks and head off with the ship Seres arrived him. She at least had the decency to tell them that she wouldn't force anyone to do this. Nevertheless, the boy with the blue hair frowned and looked to the ground, where he found the fresh corpses of the two guards slowly bleeding out.

The voices of the prisoners became louder and from what they were saying, they were ready to take their chances.

"Seres," Velvet spoke to the Malakhim who nodded. The red-haired woman used her magic and undid the seals on all of the cell doors. As soon as they were opened, like a flood, daemons, and humans alike ran past the trio and made their way to the docks.

"That ought to draw the attention of the guards. In the meantime, we'll search for that watchtower. From there we can follow the outer path down to the docks," Velvet explained her plan, which was 100% like what the blue-haired boy thought it would be.

"...So you're leaving them all to their fates," Seres concluded.

"I told you. I'll use any tool I need."

The boy sheathed his sword and put his hands back in his pockets. He was still looking to the ground but managed to follow the daemon nonetheless. Seres once again opted to go last, in order to keep an eye on the boy.

("I need to stay vigilante around this one.") Seres thought to herself. ("This isn't a normal prison. People are either here because they're daemons or have criticized the abbey. This boy definitely belongs to the former category. Yet… I am not sensing any malevolence around him. How strange…") Further musings of the redhead were interrupted by a… rhyme?

"Dear me, not a word of apology?"

The blue-haired boy didn't even resist the urge to roll his eyes. He knew as to whom this voice belonged to.

Velvet spun around, swinging her blade when she noticed a person standing behind her. The person, a blonde haired girl, wearing a magician or jester outfit in black and pink colors ducked just in time. With a harrumph, she got up and the blue-haired boy knew, they were in for another show.

"Hmph! What is WRONG with you people? There I was, sleeping like a sweet babe" the girl rhymed "when suddenly…" her voice became dramatic. "From paradise down to hell!" she exclaimed, making wild gestures. "No, worse! A grimy prison cell!" She giggled. "You see why I'm not feeling well."

"And you are?" Seres asked carefully. If she had looked, she would have seen the blue-haired boy's scowl disappearing and being replaced by a grin.

"Hooray, you asked! I'm thrilled to introduce to you the wise sorceress who travels the eleven seas, who scoffs at the might of dragons… None other than the acclaimed, the illustrious Mazhigigika Miluding do Din Noturun Dou! Magilou for short."

Yup, it was his old cellmate.


	2. Chapter 2

Magilou let out a sigh, after receiving nothing but silence from her little threat. "I suppose you'll never understand." She let out a harrumph. "People can be so tragically unlearned…" For some reason, she decided to say the last two syllables of the last word she spoke out loud. "But hey, like I care~" she sang and left the trio consisting of Velvet, Seres and the still to be named boy to their own devices. Said boy looked after the supposed witch with a frown but didn't do anything to stop her from going.

Wordlessly Velvet left the area, with Seres and the boy following her. For some reason, the black-haired daemon decided to inspect a nearby room, which turned out to be a small quarter for the local guards. A couple of beds were lined up against the walls, a couple of tables with lit candles were standing around, a chair had been thrown over in a hurry, plus there was a lot of junk lying around. The only thing that was really valuable was surprisingly a plant inside a pot. The blue-haired boy inspected the plant a little bit in his hands until Seres came walking up from behind him.

"An herb?" she wondered aloud. "I'm surprised the guards managed to successfully cultivate this plant on this island. It could prove useful later on." Although the boy had no idea what exactly the herb was useful for, he trusted the red-haired woman with her statement and carefully put the plant away in the bag he was carrying. After the trio exited the room, Velvet began to mumble to herself about Magilou.

"I can't believe that girl snuck up on me." It sounded like she was chiding herself for not noticing the blonde earlier. "Who is she?"

"This is no ordinary prison," Seres explained. "We must be cautious. Trust no one." With her last words, she looked over to their blue-haired companion, who appeared to be busy unraveling some kind of black string to which his silver accessory was attached to. "She said she's a powerful witch." Seres returned her attention to Velvet.

"Did she have a Malak tethered?" the daemon asked.

"No," Seres shook her head "I didn't sense Malakhim around her. She's an ordinary human… I think." The red-haired Malak didn't sound so sure of herself. Nevertheless, Velvet took her words to heart.

"Then she's an ordinary magician, not a witch," the daemon concluded. "If she tries to trick me again, I'll crush her and be done with it." With that being said the trio continued their ascend through the prison, getting higher and higher. As they arrived on the next floor, they were greeted by the sound of swords clashing against each other. The trio halted for a minute, before following the sounds. As they came across a corner, they were greeted by an exorcist flying right in front of him. He landed unceremoniously on the ground and didn't get up. Judging by the number of wounds he had received, he probably died before he even hit the ground. Turning the corner, the three were greeted by a truly gruesome sight. Daemons and exorcists alike were lying on the ground, dead, evidence of a recent battle all over their corpses. The ground was painted red from blood, entire limbs had been cut off the original bodies and only one man was left standing in the middle of this massacre. He wore what appeared like traditional Japanese clothing in the colors red, violet and white. His black hair was messy and tied in a ponytail. Instead of shoes, he wore sandals.

"More?" the man scoffed and turned around. One of his eyes was covered by his black hair, similar to how the young man with the blue hair had covered his. However, for the briefest of moments, his eye could be seen, as it glowed red, before disappearing.

"This one… he's a daemon!" Seres warned her companions. Directly after the proclamation, the daemon man drew out two short knives and took on a battle stands. While he was motioning his body, his hair flew a little to the side, revealing some kind of black and red corruption around his covered eye.

"Get ready!" Velvet exclaimed as the other daemon was already rushing towards the trio. The female daemon met him halfway and their blades clashed. Both jumped backward at the same time, before reengaging. Velvet's opponent unleashed a flurry of strikes and she immediately countered it with her footwork. Apparently, the daemon woman had a hidden blade inside her new boot. With it, she somehow managed to parry each and every swing of the enemy's arms.

"You're not human," the daemon man proclaimed.

"Neither are you," Velvet replied calmly, before swinging her main blade, which was however blocked by one knife of the enemy. At the same time, the man thrust forwards his other knife, but couldn't hit Velvet, as she dodged to the side.

"Hehe, true enough," the daemon man acknowledged and attacked again. He jumped forward, did a roll in the air and then used the momentum to strike at Velvet. However, it appeared as if the man had forgotten about Seres, who blasted the man out of the sky with a simple fireball. The enemy daemon groaned in pain but managed to land on his feet. Before the samurai man could fully take on his battle stands, the blue-haired boy was suddenly in front of him and swung his blade. The black haired interrupted the attack by kicking the boy in the stomach. The boy bent over and his swing missed completely. Seeing his chance, the samurai attacked with both of his blades, but both swings were surprisingly parried by the blue-haired boy. He recovered faster than the samurai anticipated. The man decided to distance himself for the moment and jumped backward.

However, Velvet was already on his case. The daemon woman jumped upwards and struck down with her blades. The enemy daemon managed to parry the attack just in time. Both daemons jumped backward and eyed each other. The blue-haired boy stood right next to Velvet, while Seres glared at the samurai from behind the two.

"He's strong," Velvet commented. Her blue-haired companion rushed forwards, summoning the eldritch glow to his sword. If the daemon samurai was fazed by this, he didn't show it. Instead, he opted to dodge the incoming swing by jumping forward of all things. Taken off guard, the blue haired boy faltered, only to be pushed to the ground. The daemon, however, couldn't capitalize on his advantage, as the boy used his legs to push the daemon off again.

As the daemon landed on the ground, the boy got back up, seemingly uninjured. At this moment, the daemon eyed his blade and scoffed.

"Chips in the blades already? Brittle, these exorcist knives. I've got to reclaim Stormhowl."

At the mention of the masterpiece sword, the blue-haired boy found himself once again faltering.

"Stormhowl?" Velvet repeated. "That sword we found?"

Up until now, the face of the daemon had been hard. But as soon as Velvet mentioned the sword, it softened up. Having forgotten the battle completely, the man dropped his knifes, ran past Minato and up to Velvet.

"You found it?!" he asked in excitement. "Where? Do you have it? Please, tell me!" The daemon shook Velvet like a child wanting to get his mother to play with him.

"It's in the storage room… Down below." The daemon woman was looking at her fellow daemon with wide eyes, completely taken off guard with his behavior.

"Down below? You have my thanks!"

And he was gone.

The trio looked after him for a brief moment. "He's an odd daemon," Velvet commented, before going ahead. "If things settle down, we'll miss our opportunity. Hurry," she urged the other two. Seres followed her without a word, yet the blue-haired boy opted to stay behind for just a moment longer. He looked down at all the corpses of both humans and daemons, before sighing.

("What is with this world?") he silently wondered to himself, before following the two women. He managed to catch up just in time to hear Seres making a commented as to how odd the prisoners were on this island, only for Velvet to give her an offended look.

"Ah, except for you of course."

"Forget it," the daemon woman waved off. "Like I care what a Malak thinks of me."

Their escape continued on. They met no guards on the way, unsurprising, as they were probably still working on getting the other prisoners in line. What they did meet was a pair of daemons, that basically looked like anthropomorphic pig men. They wore some old, shaggy clothing and were equipped with large wooden hammers. They were using said hammers, trying to open a closed door.

"Orcs, not the brightest of daemons, but they make up for it with their physical strength," Seres informed the other two.

"Let's leave them be. They might distract the guards." Velvet hurried on towards the entrance of the tower they had been looking for. Like little ducklings, the other two followed with Seres closing the door behind them. Just as they were about to climb up a nearby ladder, they heard the sounds of screaming and clashing of weapons on the other side, along with the oinking of pigs.

"The prisoners are doomed," Seres stated as a matter of fact. The boy looked at the door he just closed and let out yet another sigh.

"Time is short. We need to get down to the path," Velvet proclaimed and began climbing the ladder. Seres followed her, with the blue-haired boy, albeit he did it reluctantly. Once they reached the top, the three found themselves outside, on top of the tower. It was the first time in three years that Velvet was able to take in a deep breath of fresh air. Sadly, it wasn't that different from the air of her cell, mostly because there was a heavy storm raging outside. Seres and the boy followed her immediately, their clothes getting soaked in a matter of seconds. The three walked towards the edge of the tower but found an unpleasant surprise waiting for them.

"The path has collapsed. That rope won't do any good here."

The blue-haired boy let out a "tch", as he looked down. There was no way any of them would survive a fall like that. He walked to another part of the tower and looked down there. However what he saw didn't exactly raise his spirits. For down below, where the tower was facing the ocean, there were rock formations sticking out of the water. Seres walked up right next to him and followed his gaze.

"Even without the rocks, it would be suicide to jump down into the raging water like this," Seres told him, to which the blue-haired boy reluctantly nodded. A sudden unknown sound got both of their attention. The boy gasped when he saw that Velvet's previously bandaged arm had now transformed into a red and black pulsating claw.

"Wait, you're not seriously going to try it, are you?" Seres asked in surprise.

"He fell further than this back at the shrine." And with that cryptic message, Velvet jumped off the cliff, vanishing from view. The boy and the red-haired woman gasped and ran towards where Velvet had jumped off. They arrived just in time to see her sliding down a cliff and landing uncomfortably on the ground. To both of their surprise, she immediately managed to get back up again.

"She is truly committed to this," Seres noted and turned her attention to the boy. "I guess this is where we part ways. Farewell." And before the blue haired boy could even do as much as comprehend the words the woman had said, she disappeared into a flash of fire. The blue haired boy flinched and involuntarily took a step backward until the flames died down. It took him a minute to realize that he had been left behind out of convenience, but when it clicked in his brain, he looked angrily at the ground and kicked a nearby rock away.

("Damn it!") he thought to himself while keeping his stoic visage on the outside. ("This was my only chance to get out of here. Okay Minato, calm down.") he told himself. ("Consider your options. I cannot jump down the tower, I wouldn't survive it. The logical conclusion would be to go through the prison, but then I would have to face the guards. Not to mention, I don't know my way around here. I won't make it in time!")

Minato walked over the trap door, leading down inside the tower. ("Standing around here in the rain won't do me any good. I need to get a move on. I just might be able to overpower the guards with my-") Just then Minato's train of thought suddenly halted, as a new idea appeared inside his mind as fast as a lightning bolt.

("Will that really work? I have never tried using my power like this, but in theory, he should be able to hold me, right?")

XXX

Velvet and Seres in the meantime found themselves in a bind. Their opponent Praetor Oscar of the Abbey and his two Malakhim proved to be formidable opponents to the Malakh and the daemon. Yet at the same time, the Praetor found himself in the same position. He expected harsh resistance from Seres, given that she had been Lord Artorius' Malak, but the daemon proved to be just as strong and versatile.

"..You're strong," he reluctantly praised. "I will have to expend a Malak or two for this." His Malakhim knew exactly what he was talking about and didn't need any more orders from him. One dropped his weapon and ran up to the "graceless daemon", holding her in place. Of course, the daemon struggled, but this was where the second Malak came in. He shot an arte directly at the daemon, which would kill her and the Malakhim holding her. However, she managed to break free in time and with a series of kicks she got the Malak in the path of the incoming arte, causing him to get hit, instead of the daemon. The Malak screamed in agony, as the arte took a toll on his body.

"What are you doing?!" Seres screamed in shock.

"Control your emotions to control the tide of battle!" Oscar said as he charged at Velvet. She recognized those words only all too well. It was one of Artorius' so-called Maximes with which he taught her to fight with her sword. She guessed he used those same Maximes nowadays to train his underlings.

The strike came in fast, but not fast enough for Velvet to not being able to block it. She and Oscar were interlocked for a second and a half before they both jumped back a couple of meters.

"More of your vaunted 'reason'?" the daemon asked, before taking the offensive. She tried to pierce the human with her blade, but her attack was parried. Not losing any momentum, she slashed with her foot blade, followed by her gauntlet blade, but Oscar managed to sidestep her. He dodged a couple of more swings, waiting for an opening. But it didn't came, as the daemon attacked relentlessly. He was forced to go on the full defensive with his blade and at least managed to get her to a standstill with him once again. As both daemon and human pushed each other back and forth, a sudden scream interrupted their power struggle. Both once again jumped away and looked at the source of the noise, which turned out to be the Malak, who got hit by the arte earlier. A dark purple and black aura was surrounding him and he was holding his head as if he was trying to rip it off.

"No!" Seres screamed, realizing what was about to happen. The energy around the Malak intensified and turned into a swirling vortex. His voice became distorted and took on a deeper tone. In a matter of moments, the energy disappeared, revealing a big, red scaled dragon.

"A Malak… with daemonblight?!" Velvet asked in disbelief, as this was something completely new to her.

"Ungh! It's lost control," Oscar realized, anything but happy with the sudden turn of events.

The dragon hovered in the air and let out a roar. It was loud enough to make everyone cringe. As they all recovered, the dragon turned towards Oscar and his second Malak and without warning, attacked the two, by creating a gigantic gust of wind. The dragon used its giant wings in order to pull the attack off. The Praetor and his Malak were slammed against a nearby wall, upon impact, both were seemingly knocked out.

Having disposed one threat, the dragon turned its attention to Velvet. From the way it moved its body, it looked like it wanted to charge straight at her. Just as the beast was about to do so, the sound of glass shattering echoed throughout the room, which was followed by a shout from an unknown voice.

"ORPHEUS!"

Blue mist appeared right next to the dragon, getting the attention of the red-scaled beast. Out of instinct, it flew backward.

"What the-?!" Velvet couldn't finish the sentence as a large, humanoid figure appeared out of the mist. It had a metallic body, silver hair, a black face and wore a gigantic lyre on its back. As human as the figure appeared to be, it was deformed in several places and wore a red scarf. The dragon roared at the figure and prepared to attack. Before the former Malakhim could strike at the figure, it grabbed it's lyre and played a harsh tune. A fireball escaped the lyre and flew directly at the dragon's face it screamed in pain, waving its head back and forth, hitting the walls as it did so. It landed on the ground with smoke still coming off its face.

"What is that?!" Velvet asked in shock and awe. "Wait, the boy?!" She just spotted the blue-haired boy standing underneath the figure. He had one of his artifacts, Velvet didn't even know where she should begin to describe that thing and was holding it against his head.

"Is he… related to it?" Seres asked, her gaze switching between the boy and the thing above him.

The metallic, humanoid figure put it's lyre back on its back and began to speak.

"I am thou."

Oscar managed to get on his knees at this point and managed to watch the spectacle. "Ungh. What is happening?" he wondered aloud, as his vision was still clearing up.

"Thou art I." The figure continued to speak. It's voice was elegant and awe inspiring at the same time.

"From the sea of thy soul, I cometh."

"The sea of his… soul?" Seres repeated.

"I am Orpheus!" the now dubbed Orpheus proclaimed, taking his lyre in both of his hands.

"The master of strings!" He finished and struck the dragon directly on the head. The dazed creature barely saw it coming, but it was too late. The gigantic lyre connected to the dragon's head and slammed it into the ground, creating a crater of the size of said head. Orpheus then disappeared, leaving the blue-haired boy behind. Said boy had his sword ready and took on his battle stand.

Seres was still caught up in awe of the display, but Velvet managed to catch herself rather quickly. She knew they had to get rid of that dragon as quickly as possible if they wanted to get off the island safely. And now was the perfect chance to strike, namely while the dragon was still recovering from the blows it had received.

Sprinting forward, the daemon decided it was time to honor her new race and activated her daemon arm.

"Take that! Devour!" she screamed and slashed the dragon with her daemon arm. As she did this, she could feel a small portion of energy filling her. Basically what she had done was to not only injure the dragon, but she also took a part of his life essence and ate it at the same time. She had discovered this ability while feeding on the various prisoners. The essence not only replenished her own energy but granted her some extra strength for a limited amount of time. And she was going to use that time to the fullest extent.

"Searing Edge!" she screamed, using her hidden fire-arte and unleashed a series of kicks and slashes upon the downed dragon. The blue-haired boy attacked as well, using his sword in order to cut through the scales. Seres in the meantime had managed to catch herself and was shooting her fire artes at the dragon.

Of course, the daemon wouldn't just take the beating. In an effort to kill its opponents quickly, it opened its mouth and unleashed a torrent of fire. Velvet and Minato were both forced to get the hell out of the way, else they risked to be turned into crispy chicken. And although Seres continued with her assault of artes, the dragon managed to get airborne again, looking none too happy.

It tried to slash Minato with its claws, but there was one more thing Velvet could do with the power she absorbed from the dragon. Channeling this power into her arm, she unleashed a powerful arte upon the dragon.

"Phalanx Raid!" she screamed. Dark violet and black spikes erupted from out of the ground and pierced through the dragon's softer, white belly. The beast screamed in pain, as blood immediately began to spill out of the open wounds, along with some dark energy escaping it.

"I underestimated her. She's stronger than I anticipated," Oscar realized. "And that boy, he can summon demons?! I've never seen such a thing!"

The dragon once again breathed fire, this time it was directly aimed at Velvet. Feeling the heat on her skin, she rolled out of the way. Her blade caught fire, as she unleashed her hidden arte once again, this time hitting the hind leg of the dragon. In reaction to the sudden pain, the tail of the creature lashed out and knocked Velvet away.

"First aid!" Seres screamed and healed Velvet immediately. Feeling the pain disappearing, the daemon managed to get off the ground immediately and charged at the dragon again. Said beast had in the meantime turned his attention to Minato and unleashed a strong wind upon the boy. Due to the distance, the boy only slid across the ground and didn't actually flew over it.

Having some distance between himself and the opponent, Minato grabbed his evoker, spun it as his hand approached his head (a bad habit of his) until the fake gun ended up pointing against his head. "Persona!" he shouted, pulling the trigger. Glass shards seeming got shot out of his head, a blue mist surrounded him and out of this mist, Orpheus appeared once again. The master of strings played his instrument and the dragon was once again engulfed in fire. Seres just so happened to follow this up, having charged up a particularly strong and large fireball. The flames engulfed the entirety of the beast, causing it to scream in pain even more. Seeing her chance, Velvet once again devoured a part of the dragon's life essence, strengthening the swings of her blade. Blood was spilled all over her, but she didn't care. Unleashing one more "Phalanx Raid", the wounds the dragon had received up until this point proved to be fatal, as it slammed to the ground and stopped moving entirely.

Seres found herself needing to catch her breath, after firing arte after arte. As such, she didn't see Oscar's remaining Malak casting a wind-arte on Velvet until it hit her. Minato and Seres both turned their attention to the Praetor, the former running right in front of Velvet in order to block a potential second projectile based attack.

"Apologies… but I can't let a nasty daemon like you roam free, now can I?" he asked sarcastically.

Minato tightened the grip on his sword, getting ready to fight the praetor. Seres did the same, already channeling the next arte.

"Velvet," the daemon woman suddenly spoke up. Minato and Seres turned around to see that Velvet had already recovered. "That's my name. Give Artorius my regards." She walked over to the corpse of the dragon, unleashed her daemon arm and slammed it on the head of the dragon. Both Minato and Oscar stared in shock as dark energy started to come out of the dragon and flowed into Velvet's arm as if she was eating the beast through said arm.

"My name is Velvet Crowe. And I will devour daemon, Malak, and exorcist alike," she proclaimed. The dragon disappeared in black mist, only leaving behind a pool of blood that it had lost during the fight. Velvet got up, her arm still that of a daemon and turned towards Oscar.

"I am a monster," she shouted, her face full of hatred. Suddenly she held up her daemon arm and a big fireball appeared in its palm. Minato cautiously walked a few steps away. "I AM A THERION!" This turned out to be a vice decision, as Velvet shot the fireball directly at the exorcist. Too stunned from the devouring display, Oscar didn't realize that he was in danger until it was too late. Like the dragon previously, his face was engulfed in flames. And just like the dragon, he screamed in pain, waving his arms around. His Malak quickly came to his aid and in a flash of light, both teleported out of the room to parts unknown. Minato silently wondered why the red-haired Malak hadn't done the same with him earlier.

Seres, Velvet, and Minato met in the middle of the room, the latter sheathing his sword.

"That is a rather intriguing ability you possess," Seres spoke directly to Minato. Although the blue haired boy could hear the suspicion in her voice, he still nodded in appreciation of the praise.

"We can talk later, we need to get a move on," Velvet told the other two and was about to take the lead again when suddenly the three heard a door opening. Expecting more exorcists, they drew their weapons, but were pleasantly surprised, when they spotted two familiar faces.

"Oho! Finally someplace that might not be a death-trap!" Magilou proclaimed in an over exaggerated voice. She and the samurai appeared from out of the door. "When we tumbled from the tower, I thought, this is it, Magilou, this is the end!" the self-proclaimed witch shouted.

"It would've been less risky if you hadn't suddenly appeared and jumped on my back," the daemon samurai complained at the witch.

Minato was sure, if this had been an anime, he would have sweatdropped. Then again, his life had pretty much become an anime a long time ago.

It was then that the duo noticed the trio. "Oh hey, it's you!" The samurai walked up to Velvet with the witch slowly following him. "It's thanks to you that Stormhowl is back in my care." The daemon slightly unsheathed the masterpiece, before putting it back.

"So he is…" Seres mumbled to herself.

The samurai bowed his head, before introducing himself. "Rokurou Rangetsu at your service. This blade is my life. I owe you a great debt, one I vow to repay."

Seres raised an eyebrow underneath her mask, knowing just how much this vow really meant.

"Yes, yes, she's a peach model citizen," the witch interrupted, sounding incredibly jumpy. "Can we get a move on? I think they're just about done massacring the rioters."

Minato would have smiled at the funny way Magilou said that sentence if it weren't for the fact that he was part of the reason all of those people were going to die. But since there was nothing he could do, he opted to stay silent for the time being.

While Velvet didn't think much of the girl in the jester outfit, she figured the more people they had on hand the better.

"The docks are just ahead. Give us a hand." With that being said, Velvet walked outside, followed closely by Magilou and Rokurou. Minato and Seres stayed behind, the latter looking towards where they came from.

"Are you having second thoughts?" Seres asked in a neutral tone. Minato turned around and glared with his visible eye at her.

"Since the very beginning," he told her and followed Velvet.


	3. Chapter 3

Riding a wooden ship through a storm with a crew that barely managed to differentiate between starboard and port turned out to be not as suicidal as it sounded. After all, they only crashed the ship against a bunch of rocks, which were sticking out of the ocean next to an island and then all of them got thrown off the ship, landed on the said island and lost consciousness until the next morning. All in all, the escapees had been pretty lucky, especially considering they were more or less unharmed. Sure Magilou and Minato sprouted a few bruises from the crash and for some reason, it was only them, but all in all, they were no worse for wear. Of course, it took everyone some time to wake up and Minato turned out to be the first one.

The first thing he felt before even opening his eyes was the sheer cold that engulfed his entire body. More through instinct, than an actual thought process, Minato internally switched his Persona from Orpheus to one that was more suited for the cold. Almost immediately it felt like his body temperature was rising in a matter of seconds, even though in reality the body itself became simply more resistant to the cold. The boy couldn't suppress a groan escaping his lips, as he pushed himself off the ground. Snow fell off his head and after opening his eyes, the blue-haired boy noted that it was snowing in the entire area. After getting up on his feet, Minato surveyed the entire area and took note of everything previously mentioned. It said something about his character that he managed to take the entire situation with a calm demeanor. After checking everyone's condition, he was a little surprised, but also relieved that everyone else appeared to be fine. He was about to wake up Seres, who had landed a few feet away from the rest when he could hear the sound of snow being crunched on regular bases. And it was getting louder.

Given his past experience with the local population, Minato decided it was best to hide behind a rock and observe whoever was coming. The boy quickly found himself surprised for a second time that day, as he found a small boy approaching the crash site. The young boy had shining blonde hair, wore a white robe of some sorts, along with black boots and a huge black color that hung loosely around his neck. At first, Minato assumed that the boy was part of the Exorcists that he had fought against earlier. The clothes were pretty much an indication of that. But then Minato reminded himself that the kid looked to be around the age Ken had been in. There was no way a military group like the exorcists had children on their employee list, right?

The child for some reason decided to approach Velvet, who was still out cold. The blonde knelt down and held his hands out just above the body of the daemon. Before Minato could even do so much as guess as to what the boy was up to, the hands of the blonde started to glow in a white light. The former Gekkoukan High Student watched with curiosity as for a short amount of time Velvet was engulfed in that light. During that time the woman showed first signs of waking up. She tilted her head in a way that she was facing the boy and her eyes fluttered open. Minato could hear her say something, but she was speaking too quiet for him to make out anything she was saying.

The light faded and along with it, the boy retracted his hands and looked down on Velvet. She for some reason got up quickly, appearing to be alarmed by the presence of the boy. The quick motioned surprised the blonde and he ran away from Velvet. On his way, he picked up the compass from the ship without even stopping. However, the boy didn't get very far. Not because Velvet was chasing him, but rather because there were two other daemons, who decided the boy would make a good snack. One reminded Minato a lot of the mythical werewolves and the other looked almost like a normal hawk if it wouldn't be so big.

"Stand back!" Velvet shouted and positioned herself in front of the boy. Minato figured this was as good of a time as any other to come out of his hiding place and help the woman fight off the daemons. Luckily he didn't lose his weapon during the storm, though the fact that he was still wearing nothing more than his high school uniform left him weary. Apparently, Velvet had no problem wearing no armor whatsoever and engaged the werewolf creature in a fierce fight. While the two exchanged swipes with each other, Minato was left to handle the bird. Here was the problem though. For some reason that bird was able to shoot it's feathers towards Minato, using them as projectiles. Those feathers turned out to be as sharp as knives, as the boy found out the hard way, by receiving multiple cuts on clothes and body alike. What made things even more annoying was that the hawk kept flying in the air and kept shooting those feathers at Minato. The boy found himself dodging the projectiles for quite some time. And from the looks of things, the beast didn't appear to be running out of ammo anytime soon.

Seeing as he had no choice, Minato took out his evoker and held it against his head. "Jack Frost!" he shouted and with a shot of his gun, he summoned the smiling snowman. Said snowman shot multiple ice shards at the hawk. Two shots missed, but one went right through the heart of the beast. With a pitiful cry, it fell from the sky and landed ungracefully on the ground. Minato spared it from any more suffering by severing the head with his sword. Velvet in the meantime had finished off her own opponent, actually, she had finished him off long before Minato did with his opponent and was now happily munching on her prey with her arm.

Minato couldn't help but watch the procedure going on with a mixture of disgust and fascination.

"My word, a daemon-muncher!"

Minato turned around and found out that the rest of the gang had woken up. It was Magilou who had spoken up. "You really ARE a box of horrors, aren't ya?"

The blue-haired boy returned his attention to Velvet just in time to see her finishing up. And the finishing up was indicated by the body of the daemon turning into the dead body of a human. This came literally out of nowhere, and the high school student took an involuntary step backward. This world really loved throwing surprises at him left and right. The rest, however, did not appear to be affected by this in any way.

"Sorry," Rokurou apologized. "If I had a weapon, I would have helped. I promise."

"Aren't you wearing one?" Seres' raised eyebrow could be seen from behind her mask. In response, the samurai daemon shook his head.

"Oh, nah. I can't use this. Sorry. Long story."

"And the child?" Velvet immediately followed up, not bothered by the rather lackluster explanation.

"The little brat?" Magilou asked. "Scampered off somewhere."

"Child?" Seres asked. "What child?"

"A Malakhim," Rokurou explained, his expression turning thoughtful. "Though something was off about him. He used a healing arte on Velvet."

"A Malakhim using a healing arte on a daemon? That is… not normal," Seres stated, her lips forming a frown.

"Oh? You mean like a Malakhim helping a daemon escaping from prison?" Magilou asked, giving Seres a shit-eating grin.

"Yeah, now that she mentions it, don't you Malakhim have to follow the orders of an exorcist? Does that mean somebody ordered you to break Velvet out?" the daemon samurai followed up. Minato listened intently, as everything he was hearing was possibly vital information.

Seres for her part didn't answer immediately. Rather, she glanced over to Velvet, who in return gave the Malak a more or less none-caring look. Seres returned her attention to the other two and gave them a hard look. Or not, it was hard to tell, with her wearing the mask.

"I don't follow the orders of any exorcist. Not anymore, at least."

"Anymore?" Magilou inquired, but she didn't receive an answer. Instead, Seres turned around and looked at the scattered cargo from the ship.

"We should see what we can use of this and then find the closest town," she declared.

"Well, in that case, this might come in handy." Rokurou suddenly held out a map with his left hand and showed it to everyone. The group gathered around it and inspected it. The map itself wasn't very detailed in any way and looked more than a little worn. It showed a group of islands, with the largest ones being in the middle, along with the most important cities being marked on it. There were also some mountains and ships drawn on it, along with other signature landmarks.

"A map? Was that left by the child?" Velvet asked as she inspected it.

After giving the others a minute to look at it, Rokurou turned the map around and looked at the map himself. "The kid snatched up our compass, so I figured I could help myself with this. Looks to me like we're in Northgand."

"Northgand? Then if we're to reach the capital in Midgand, we've no choice but to patch up our ship," Velvet concluded.

"What are your plans, once you reach Logres?" the male daemon asked, but only received a glare as an answer. Minato gave Velvet an inquisitive look but quickly directed his attention elsewhere.

"Something breaking out of prison for," Rokurou guessed.

It was at this moment that Magilou sneezed. A groan escaped her and she rubbed her arms in an attempt to warm herself up. Given the clothes she was wearing, it was no surprise she would get cold.

"Can't we stand around and chat somewhere nicer? Somewhere with soup to warm the body, tales to warm the heart…" the self-proclaimed with complained.

"If I remember correctly, the city where we can find a shipwright and a place to stay overnight is Hellawes," Seres told the others with a thoughtful expression. "However, we need to tread carefully when we reach the city. Just recently an exorcist praetor by the name of Teresa was stationed there. She is also the sister of Oscar, the praetor overseeing the prison."

This statement immediately alarmed everyone else in the group.

"I should also mention that she is very fond of her brother. Once word reaches her that we injured her brother, she'll do anything to hunt us down."

"Whoa, talk about tough luck," Rokurou commented.

"That means we need to get our ship repaired as soon as possible. Let's not waste any more time." With that being said Velvet immediately started walking down the snowy path. The others quickly followed her, as they didn't want to get left behind.

As they left their stolen ship behind, Minato took off the jacket of his uniform and held it out to Magilou. The witch, still self-proclaimed until further notice, blinked in surprise, before accepting the jacket and slinging it around her body.

"Why, thank you. I didn't know you could be such a gentleman," the blonde commented. Minato just shrugged and waved off. Almost immediately, Magilou slumped over with her upper body.

"Urrgh! Would it kill you to actually say something?" she asked in a rhetorical fashion, already used to her former cellmate not speaking much. She found it still annoying though.

"Something." Minato simply said. He then looked down at his body and shrugged. "Nope, still alive."

After hearing this, Rokurou couldn't help but laugh. Seres allowed a small smile to grace her lips. Velvet pretty much ignored them and focused on the way ahead, while Magilou gave Minato a deadpan expression.

"So, I take it you two know each other?" the samurai asked.

"Know each other?" Magilou asked in a deadpan tone before her voice became overdramatic. "I was tormented by this boy's mere presence for three agonizing months!" She held out her arm for dramatic effect. "Never in my life has the great Magilou met a person as boring as him! Truly, it was a lucky day when I would hear a full sentence coming out of his mouth!"

Rokurou shook his head in amusement. "I figured you aren't the talkative type," he told Minato, who just shrugged. "Well, can you at least give us your name?"

The blue-haired boy didn't see anything wrong with that and given that he was probably stuck with these people at least until they left this island, he figured he should at least temporarily get along with the daemons.

"Minao. Minato Arisato," he told the others.

"Minato, huh?" Rokurou left it at that. If the boy didn't want to talk, then he didn't want to talk. "By the way, Magilou, why are you speaking in such a strange way? Not to mention your appearance is just as strange as the way you speak."

"Hey, I'm a witch," the blonde replied, her mood improving by a great amount, now that there was someone she could talk to. "I must project a proper age and dignity. I have an image to maintain." She said that in a way as if it was common knowledge.

"Self-improvement in all things, I suppose," the black haired man figured. "So, what's the difference between a spellcaster and a witch?" he inquired.

"There are many! But mainly it's a matter of nuance. It's like the difference between being frugal and being miserly."

"Ah! So a spellcaster is useful, and a witch isn't, is that it?"

Minato didn't even try to hide his smile, as Rokurou managed to get the better of Magilou.

"So I guess that makes you a witch right now."

"You wound me! You're one to talk, mister Self-Improvement!" No doubt she was referring to the samurai's refusal to use his blade, which was odd all things considered.

"Your words cut deeper than these northern winds!" Magilou tried to close the jacket she had been provided with, but it was pretty obvious she had no idea how to operate a zipper. Minato had already noted the medieval-ish style of clothing most people wore around here and as such, he quickly walked over to Magilou and with a few quick motions closed the zipper for her.

"Huh… so that's how that works," she noted, inspecting the zipper with her hand. Seres and Rokurou also appeared to be interested in the small metal-thing, whereas Velvet's and Minato's gazes, were drawn towards the ocean, which opened up to the group on their left, after passing between some mountains. The overall area at first glance appeared to be deserted, with nothing but snow, a tree here and there and mountains to their right making up the scenery. However, this proved to be false, as the from the distance a group of those werewolf daemons were running towards the group at neck-breaking speeds.

"Looks like the puppies want to play," Magilou remarked, already taking a few steps backward. Seres, Velvet, and Minato got battle-ready, each drawing their individual weapons. Seeing as the werewolves could only do damage in close range, Minato decided to use his long-range skills.

"Angel!" he summoned the for an angel way to revealing woman, who shot a gust of wind against the werewolf. The creature he hit got thrown to the ground, but it quickly got up again and followed its brothers or sisters. No one bothered checking. Seres mimicked Minato's strategy and fired a fireball at the second creature. It howled in pain and flailed around with its arms, as the fur continued to burn. Minato made a mental note that fire appeared to have a greater effect on the monsters, than wind.

Switching up personas, he once again held his evoker against his head and fired. "Orpheus!" he shouted, summoning the master of strings. He played multiple tunes on his lyre, each releasing a fireball against the enemy. Thus the battle ended in a rather anticlimactic fashion, with three roasted werewolves lying in the snow. After Minato released his persona, he felt the slight toll his mind had taken, from spamming so many Agi-Spells at once. But nothing he could shrug off. Besides, a little water was usually enough to get back to 100 %.

"Wow. Now that's something you don't see every day," Rokurou commented, watching the fading image of Orpheus.

"And I thought our daemon-munching lady was unusual," Magilou added her own two-cents. She had a thoughtful expression on her face, as she eyed the boy critically.

"So, you have more than one of those… " Seres stated as a matter of fact.

Minato looked over to Seres, sheathing his sword. Velvet too looked like she was expecting some answers and given that she could literally eat him with her arm, he figured it would be best to tell them something before they started distrusting him. Not that he trusted any of them much, given that they all had been in prison, however at the moment, those former prisoners here were his only source of information. Until he could comfortably separate himself from them, a certain degree of cooperation was needed.

"The power is called "Persona"," he told them.

"Persona?" Seres asked, having never heard that word before.

"It's….on it's basic, it's your psyche made manifest into a physical being."

"Your psyche made manifest?" Rokurou repeated. "I don't get it."

Minato sighed. He didn't fully understand his own power either. He had a good grasp on things but didn't really know any specifics. "Think of it, as your personality given shape. Like, when you're easy to anger, your persona might look like this." Using his evoker, Minato summoned Ara Mitama, the red, angry looking of the four mitamas. "A persona's appearance and abilities depend on your personality, hence the name. Not everyone can summon a persona, though. It's either you have the gift or not."

"Fascinating…" Magilou spoke slowly to herself, seemingly being deep in thought.

"Hold on," Velvet spoke up. "You just said "a" persona, as in singular. But, you can use more than one," she pointed out.

Minato almost sighed. He didn't know that woman was so sharp. "I don't know why I can use more than one," he half-lied. "Can you explain to me, why you can eat people with your arm?"

Silence was the only answer he got. Figuring that he had talked enough for the month, he decided to put his headphones on and listened to some music from his mp3. Slowly but surely, the group continued on their way through the icy island, each person left with their individual thoughts.

While the ability of his was certainly interesting and briefly Velvet herself wondered what her persona would look like. But in the end, she didn't much care. She had only one goal in mind and as long as the boy didn't stand in her way, she didn't need to worry too much about him.

Seres had a completely different opinion on the matter. This Minato Arisato had just become a wild card in the already dangerous game she was playing. She knew nothing about this person or his abilities and it was clear that he had not told them everything, not that she was expecting him to come clean from the start. Still, she would need to keep an even closer eye on him from now on. There was too much at stake already, she couldn't have her plans being jeopardized by anybody.

Magilou in the meantime wasn't thinking too much about the persona ability itself. She simply had not enough information to go on for now but figured if she stuck around for a while she might just get it. For now, however, her thoughts were stuck on the jacket she was wearing. It didn't keep her warm, but at the very least her arms were covered up now. What really fascinated her about this particular piece of clothing was how well made it was. It lied smooth on her skin, didn't have any loose threads and the cuts were almost too perfect! She couldn't even guess what material it was possibly made out, as it felt so foreign to her. Not to mention the metal thing that kept the jacket together. Smaller variations of that thing were also apparent on the pockets of the jacket she was wearing, making it possible for her to close them as well. Finally, there was this symbol was stitched into the jacket. She had no idea what it might possibly stand for. All of this led her to the conclusion that Minato was have come from pretty far away, to say the least. And she was getting very interested in the home of this boy, as to what other interesting things she might find there.

Finally, there was Rokurou, who was even less concerned about Minato than Velvet. His ability was interesting, to say the least, but he didn't worry about it in any way. In the end, all of them had to have some kind of dark secret, given that they had been locked up on a prison island of all things and not just a regular cell.

As it turned out, there were a considerable amount of demons living on this island. However, between Velvet, Seres and Minato, none of them stood a chance. Velvet would always engage head-on, while Minato acted as a hybrid between close quarters and long range and Seres attacked from afar. The daemons were no trouble for the trio and Velvet was able to sate her never-ending hunger in the process. They even managed to acquire some gald, the local currency, mainly from demihumans who still wore clothes and thus had pockets to store the money. It wasn't much, but with what Seres carried herself, they would get by quite nicely for some time.

Without being able to participate in any of the fights, Rokurou decided to start up a conversation in order to pass the time.

"So nice to be free again, able to move these bones around like I want!"

"So, Rokurou. What got you all chained up in that mold-hole?" Magilou asked with genuine curiosity.

"Ties to home," he replied solemnly. "It's complicated."

Seres could easily guess just how complicated things got, given his last name. She opted to remain silent for now.

"Ohoho," Magilou laughed. "Then are you really sure you ought to be taking on further debts?"

"It's a teaching of House Rangetsu: Pay what you owe," he simply explained.

"Well! What a civilized family you've got."

"Were you in for long?" Velvet joined in on the conversation.

"Three years, maybe." The male daemon shrugged. "That's why I know so little about the state of the world."

"Oh gosh, me too! Arte-wielding Malakhim?! I've never seen such a thing! How much ELSE have I missed? Used to be witches who had a monopoly on charms and hexes. Can you even comprehend what this'll do to business?" Magilou complained.

"Obviously, you haven't been much of a witch in the first place," Seres scoffed. "Malakhim have always been able to use artes. I guess you were locked away because of fraud or something along the lines."

"Nope! Bagged for unlicensed witchcraft. It was a tale of betrayal most wicked and foul!" Magilou exclaimed.

Velvet cringed, as the words involuntarily struck a chord with her.

"Care to hear more? You'll cry! I'll laugh! Emotions will-! Hey, what's that noise?" she asked all of the sudden and looked over to Minato who had yet to do as much as acknowledging the conversation happening.

"Huh? What noise?" Rokurou asked, but was quickly shushed by Magilou. The blonde listened intently for a couple of seconds, before her hand, all of the sudden stretched out and grabbed Minato's headphones.

"What?!" the boy exclaimed, taken off guard.

Magilou pressed the device against her own ear and her eyes widened.

"Is that… music coming out of this tiny thing?!"


	4. Chapter 4

After Minato managed to secure his headphones again, he put them back on and gave Magilou a nasty glare. The blonde witch just stuck her tongue out in response. The blue-haired boy turned his head around and looked away. While doing so, he was pressing the volume button on his MP3 for so long until the volume was at the maximum. Indeed it was so loud that the rest of the group could hear the bass coming out of the headphones.

"What kind of music is that?" Rokurou asked with blinking eyes.

"Dunno, it sounds different from when I had that thing on," Magilou observed.

"I wonder when and where he came in possession of such an artifact," Seres wondered aloud. "I have never seen such a thing in my life, let alone heard about it."

"For someone who doesn't speak much, he certainly is an interesting person. First his sword, then his powers and now this. I wonder how many more surprises he has in store for us," the witch mused.

"Who knows? Though I gotta admit, I'm especially curious about that sword of his," Rokurou voiced his thoughts. "I can tell that the blade itself has been created with exceptional craftsmanship. But at the same time, I'm not too sure why it glows blue whenever Minato uses it."

"The obvious explanation would be that the sword itself is enchanted," Magilou said immediately.

"I agree," Seres nodded. "You might not know this, but enchanted weapons are not uncommon nowadays. The Abbey uses the artes of Malakhim to make conventional weapons at least somewhat effective against daemons. That way, even normal soldiers can help the exorcists to fight daemons."

"Huh? That's a new one to me," Magilou stated.

"So even normal humans can become dangerous to us daemons now?" Rokuro inquired.

"Not really. The arte to enhance a weapon has yet to be perfected. Against a weaker daemon a human might stand a chance, but in my personal opinion, I think the most you will have to worry about is getting overwhelmed by regular humans."

Rokurou was somewhat disappointed at the last tidbit. The group interrupted their conversation when they arrived at a narrow pathway. At the entrance of said pathway they saw three pink chests with cat ears lined up and in front of the said chest was a pink cat that stood on its hind legs. The tip of the tail was white, and it appeared to be wearing a red collar. Curiously Minato took off his headphones and was very surprised when he heard the cat-thing talk.

"Oh no, I'm in so much trouble, so much trouble…" The voice was high pitched but definitely male. "Won't somebody paw-lease help a kitty out, meow?"

Looking over to his companions, Minato noticed that Rokurou was the only other person surprised to see a talking cat.

"Oh look, another weirdo," Velvet said in a deadpan voice. She stopped in her tracks and put a hand on her hips. The rest stopped too.

"That thing talks?!" Rokurou exclaimed. "What if it's a cat daemon?!"

Simmer down, big man!" Magilou held her hands up in peace while standing on one leg. "She's just a Katz!" And there went Minato's theory of this creature being male. "Haven't seen one in a good long while."

"Katz…?" Rokurou repeated. "Is that different from a regular cat somehow?"

"No one but the Katz know for sure. They are similar to us Malakhim but at the same time very different." Seres shook her head at her explanation. "I apologize for the confusion. Katz are mysterious creatures, and not much is known about them."

"Works for me," Rokurou shrugged. "I understand that they're hard to understand at least."

It was at that moment that the Katz noticed the group of travelers behind her. She turned around and revealed to have a somewhat human-like face with cat features. In all honesty, Minato found himself reminded of a little girl's cartoon when he looked at the creature.

"Hey!" She waved with her paw. "I don't suppose you happen to be carrying any Katz spirit on you?" she asked. "They look like this." With a wave of her paw, two white glowing orbs appeared in front of the Katz. Minato looked a little closer, as he was sure he had seen those things somewhere before.

"That's just like what I found at Titania."

The others, minus Seres, were slightly taken aback when Velvet produced one of those orbs out of her pockets. Speaking of pockets, Minato wondered just where the hell Velvet had pockets on her skimpy clothing.

"Purrfect!" The others sweatdropped at the cat pun. "You could say they're kinda like our souls to us!"

"Katz spirits, huh…" Velvet mused.

"Sometimes we call 'em "kitten caboodles," too!"

"That's just foolish," Velvet commented.

"Really? Then how about kitty clumps?"

Rokurou snorted at the last one.

"Katz and their puns…" Seres silently mused with a smile.

"Anyway," the Katz went on, "one night we were having a feast, so meowvelous our souls flew right out of our bodies!"

"How does that work?" Minato couldn't help himself. He had seen a lot of weird things, but this one was just too ridiculous. And he was Japanese!

"That's why I need your help to find the Katz spirits and use them to emeowcipate my friends!"

"Emeowcipate? Really?" the daemon samurai asked no longer amused.

"It means to use Katz spirits to free Katz who are locked away in Katz boxes like these here, meow," the pink Katz explained. As soon as he was finished, the first orb flew towards the left chest. When both things came into contact, the chest burst open, and a daemon of all things jumped out. Minato and Velvet immediately drew their weapons, but Seres stopped them from attacking, by holding an arm in front of them.

"Watch," the redhead quietly said.

"Here you say apecipate." The pun here was that the daemon had a great resemblance to a monkey. The second orb flew towards the middle box, and it opened. A dog jumped out of it.

"This would be edogcipate."

Minato and Velvet relaxed in their stances somewhat.

"And finally…" the orb Velvet had been holding flew towards the last chest.

"Whew!" A new, brown Katz jumped out of the right, pink chest. "I'm free meow!"

"See! Emeowcipate!" The empty chests, daemon and the dog disappeared in clouds of smoke, after the final declaration.

"By that logic, shouldn't it be ekatzipate?" Velvet asked, causing Seres to almost laughed out loud. The Malak had to hold a hand in front of her mouth.

"Wow, you're way more clever than you look! Fur real!" If Velvet was offended by the comment of the pink Katz, she didn't show it. "I totally underestimated you! Please! Our Katz spirits got scattered fur and wide and so many Katz are trapped without them!"

Minato still didn't understand the logic of someone losing his or her soul and then somehow ending up trapped in colorful chests. And from the looks of things, the others didn't have an explanation either.

"Seek out the Katz and rescue our poor clawst brothers and sisters, meow!" the second Katz pleaded.

"And why should I?" Velvet asked, apparently not interested in wasting any more time.

"Please, think of the Katz!"

"You know, like Seres said, Katz do have weird and mysterious powers," Magilou crossed her arms while gaining a thinking expression. "There's a good chance we might benefit by having them in our debt."

"We'll make it worth your while, I purr-romise!" the second Katz exclaimed and held her paws out. In a white cloud of smoke, a cowboy hat appeared in her paws. "See?" The hat flew over to Minato, who caught the accessory with a dumbfounded expression.

"A hat?" the black haired daemon asked. "And this should make it worth our while?"

"Well, if we snub them, they might put a curse on us," Magilou added to her explanation.

"That has been known to happen, meow."

Rokurou suddenly laughed. It looked like he found the whole situation funny. "If we're doing all this traveling anyway, why not help them on the side?"

"It wouldn't hurt," Seres agreed and looked at Velvet. "And who knows? Someday they might give us more than just a simple hat."

Velvet sighed but conceded. She appeared as if she just wanted to go on with the journey. "As long as it is on the side…"

"Thank you!" both Katz said simultaneously before they too disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Minato looked at the hat for a couple of more seconds, before he decided to stuff it away into his backpack for the time being.

"Well that just happened," Rokurou chuckled. "Looks like things can only get more interesting from here on out."

"And more dangerous," Seres warned. "We're almost in Hellawes. It's behind this pass."

The Malakhim led the way, and the others followed her. It got a little rocky, but luckily there were no daemon ambushes because, in such a small space, fighting would have been severe. Now that no mountains were in the way, the city wall finally came into view. However, it turned out to be too early to celebrate, as there were exorcists stationed outside the city walls. Also, there was a line of people, sometimes with pack mules, who were inspected by the exorcists.

"Exorcists," Velvet simply stated. The group hid behind a small rock formation and watched the ongoing proceedings.

"Well, that's just inconsiderate!" Magilou shouted. "Word of the prison break couldn't have traveled so quickly."

"I somehow doubt they'll just let us in, looking the way we do," the daemon swordsman stated the obvious.

"Something must have happened," Seres said in a serious tone. "Exorcists are usually not deployed for simple guard duty. No, they're looking for a daemon." Seres turned her head to the others. "The question is, whether they're looking for us or somebody else."

"I-I…" A young male voice suddenly caught everyone's attention. Turning their heads, they were surprised to find the blonde Malakhim from earlier just standing a couple of feet away from them. Seres gasped in shock.

"It's you!" Much to the surprise of the others, Seres stood up and walked over to the younger looking Malakhim. The male Malak in return looked up towards his senior.

"Seres?" Velvet asked, but was ignored.

"What are you doing here?" Seres asked, worry clearly being present in her voice.

"I-I… I sneaked out," the younger Malak answered with a monotone voice. "I wanted to apologize. I didn't mean to steal this." The blonde Malak reached into his bag and took out a golden compass. The others approached the boy, seeing that he was holding out the compass to Seres. However, for some reason, the female Malak just stared at the boy in front of her. Minato decided to take the compass in Seres' stead.

"Seres!" Velvet's voice snapped the redhead back to reality. "You know this Malak?" the daemon asked.

"Y-yes," Seres stuttered and cleared her throat. "He is… he is a Malak that got assigned to an exorcist, just before I left for Titania." Seres looked over to Hellawes. "Judging where we are, I guess you were assigned to Teresa, correct?"

"Yes, that is correct," the male Malak confirmed in his monotone voice.

"Wait a second. You said you sneaked out?" Magilou asked, to which the Malak nodded. "Well, what do we have here? It looks like Seres isn't the only disobeying Malakhim."

"That's certainly strange," Rokurou said with a thoughtful expression.

Seres held back a snappy comment and instead focused on the Malak in front of her. "You said you sneaked out, that means you somehow managed to get past the guards without them noticing. Show us how. That's an order."

Everyone, even Velvet or maybe especially Velvet, was surprised at the sudden harshness of the tone Seres' voice had suddenly taken. The daemon woman looked at the female Malak suspiciously. As for the male one, he nodded with an empty expression and said: "Follow me."

"Did… did she just give another Malakhim an order?" Rokurou asked.

"Looks like it. Interesting…" Magilou put a hand under chin, thinking.

Minato for his part didn't get what the big deal was. Sure the "that's an order" thing came out of nowhere, but the others looked like Seres had just turned into a dragon in front of their very eyes. The blue-haired boy sure hoped Hellawes had a library, where he could study up on things he was as of yet unaware of.

The young child led the group of prison escapees towards a nearby cliff, away from the commotion in front of the town entrance. The path was a bit slippery, but an adjacent wall assured no one accidentally fell into the ocean. Soon enough the trail became wider again, the group found themselves at a lower level than the city itself. A cave came into view and the boy walked inside. Everyone in the group noticed that the cave was conveniently placed underneath where the city walls began. The cave itself was not very big. They found the boy standing in front of a ladder of all things, waiting for them to arrive.

"A ladder? Here?" Velvet voiced everyone's thought.

"I wonder where it leads?" Rokurou asked.

"Only one way to find out," Velvet replied and started climbing. One after another the rest followed her upside. First Rokurou, then Magilou, then Seres, Minato and finally the young Malak who showed them the secret entrance, to begin with. What awaited them at the end turned out to be a storehouse, as Velvet obviously stated. Minato, being the last who climbed up, closed the trap door behind him and took a look around.

The storehouse was cramped with all kinds of things, making it hard for the group to stay in one place. Everyone spread around the storehouse a little bit to get at least some open space. Minato noted that the storehouse had a lot of crates and barrels filled with some black stones, reminding him of coal. For some reason, there were also weapons stored here, along with sacks filled with probably more of those stones. A few bottles of something else were also placed on small shelves.

The high school student found himself brought out of his inspection of the area, by Magilou, who was sniffing the air. "That smell… flamestone!" she exclaimed.

"Flamestone?" Rokurou asked.

"Also known as melchionite," the witch explained. "A rare mineral only found in Northgand. Mix it with sulfur and you get explosives!" Everyone noted the sadistic grin on her face. "Mix it with oil and you get fuel!"

"Sounds dangerous… If it's true," Velvet spoke with honest doubt.

"It is true," Seres confirmed. "Flamestone is the main export resource of Hellawes and also the reason the city has seen an economic boom. We should be careful, while in here. One accidental spark is enough and we might burn down the entire city."

"So, what do we do with him?" Rokurou pointed towards the Malak who showed them the way in. As for the boy, he just stared with empty eyes into the air. Minato was seriously getting worried at the behavior the boy was showing.

"Don't worry about him," Seres assured. "He won't mention us to anyone."

"And what makes you so sure?" Velvet asked, activating her daemonic arm. Everybody took a step backward at this. "If I just eat him, then there will be no witness left."

"Wait!" The female Malak exclaimed, clearly panicking. "There's no need for this. We can simply command him not to mention us to anyone and we will be in the clear. Besides, if he were to disappear, then the exorcists will only get more agitated than they already are. We will risk being discovered."

For a couple of moments, no one dared to say anything. Seres was standing protectively in front the young boy, while Velvet stood in front of the redhead with her claw out, seemingly relaxed. In truth, the daemon was mentally going over what Seres had said and she could see the logic behind it. Velvet deactivated her daemon arm and Seres let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding.

"Fine. Malak," Velvet raised her voice. The blonde Malak appeared from behind Seres and stood at attention. "Return to your master and don't tell anyone that you have seen us."

"Is that an order?" the boy asked.

"It is," Velvet confirmed.

"Understood." With that being said, the Malakhim left the building through the front entrance. Seres looked after him for a couple of moments, not noticing that Velvet was approaching her.

"We'll talk later," the daemon whispered to the Malak, before addressing the whole group. "Well, we're in the city now."

"Well, then let's scout for the maritime guild," Rokurou suggested. "Whoever's in charge of all these storehouses must have their hands in the shipping trade and shipbuilding," the male daemon reasoned.

"And we could use a true sailor if we can find one," the female daemon thought aloud.

"Can we really just hire one? Won't they asked questions?" Minato found himself opening his mouth again because sadly it was necessary.

"No, any ships leaving the harbor are registered by the Abbey," Seres explained. "You need to ask for permission to leave at least two weeks beforehand. Also, every crew member must be registered and inspections of the cargo can always happen too. The Abbey is very strict when it comes to who goes where and there aren't many people ready to disagree with the exorcists. Our best bet is still to repair our own ship."

"I guess the plan is set and I can totally endorse it! We dodged the sea's murderous grasp this time, but who's to say our luck will hold?" Magilou exclaimed in a dramatic fashion.

There was a small silence.

"We should look for some weapons, too, if I'm to be any use in a fight," the daemon samurai argued.

"You're… still wearing one," his fellow daemon pointed out with a raised eyebrow.

"Nope. Not an option."

Minato began to speculate that this was some kind of samurai code he was unaware of. On the way out, the group grabbed some stuff they deemed useful and packed it into Minato's back. Outside, they found themselves in the middle of a surprisingly empty harbor. Oh, there were a lot of ships docked there and a couple of people were wandering around too, but not as much as one would expect from a town that relied on its harbor so much.

As the group walked around, they listened in to the various conversations people were having. Minato purposefully turned the volume on his mp3 down, in order to hear what the people were saying. They listened to some interesting things, like for example it took a week by ship to reach the capital and that as of late the Abbey inspected every vessel because of an incident of some kind.

A group of children was talking about how they wanted to become exorcists when they grew up. There was an unusually mature one around them, who said being an exorcist meant you had to protect everyone. For some reason, Seres let out a dark chuckle when she heard that.

By asking one of the guards, Rokurou found out that the shipping guild had its headquarters inside the central city and not at the harbor. The group had to go through a big pair of double doors, in order to get to the inner city. Once there, the streets became cramped really fast. Despite the cold weather a lot of people were walking around on the main road and listening in to conversations became impossible. The escapees had a hard time staying together in the first place and as a measure to not get lost, they walked on the right side of the road. Luckily for them, Hellawes was relatively small, at least to Minato's standards. The city only had one main road, along with some side alleys. He really had expected Hellawes to be bigger, but then again, these people had yet to develop as far technology wise as the people from his home.

Another thing that quickly came to light was just how the prisoners stood out. Everyone was staring at them in some fashion, especially Velvet, since she was showing so much skin. People wondered how she hadn't become an ice block as of yet. The rest of the group gathered almost as much attention, due to the clothing they wore. They did their best to ignore everyone, but it wasn't easy.

"While I'm normally fond of attention, this is getting too much, even for me," Magilou whispered.

"It can't be helped," Seres whispered back. "Just act normal for now, at least until we find a store where we can buy new clothes."

"Easy for you to say. At least you have clothes that keep you warm," the self-proclaimed witch shivered.

After some more walking, the group arrived at a street corner with a massive building on the side. Velvet spotted a group of sailors in front of the building. She asked whether this was the shipping guild or not, but received no answer, as Rokurou spotted something that interested him more.

"Oh hey, that weapon shop looks promising! Good luck with the shipwright search." He said and was gone further down the road, heading for the blacksmith.

"Boys… Poor creatures just can't be separated from their favorite toys, can they?" Magilou sighed, to which Minato opted not to comment. Velvet mumbled something to herself, before approaching one of the sailors. Seres walked close to her, whilst Magilou and Minato kept themselves in the background.

"Is this a shipping guild?" Velvet asked one of the sailors. Instead of answering, the sailor kept conversing with his colleague.

"Damn that Dyle! What does he think he's doing by trying to resist?"

The other sailor nodded. "We wouldn't be in this mess if he were dead."

"Excuse us," Seres spoke up, getting the attention of the two sailors "We need a ship repaired."

The man looked particularly annoyed. "Sorry, but we can't help."

"What makes you say that?" the daemon lady asked.

"Guild business is currently suspended." A new authoritarian, female voice made itself known. Everyone turned around and found a blonde haired woman with green eyes and in an exorcist dress approaching the scene. She was accompanied by two boys, who one the escapees recognized as the young child that helped them out.

"By the order of Exorcist Teresa of the Abbey," the woman introduced herself.

Seres cursed under her breath, as she had hoped not to meet the Praetor in the crowded city. Luckily, she had thought of a contingency plan, knowing the chances were high the two would run into each other. Of course, Teresa herself noticed Seres almost immediately.

"Seres? What are you doing here?" the Praetor asked with authority.

"Lady Teresa." Seres walked in front of Velvet, hoping to drag the attention away from the black haired daemon. At the same time, she changed the tone in her voice, as to not arouse any suspicion from the Praetor.

"I am here on orders from Lord Artorius," Seres explained herself. As soon as Artorius' name fell, the slowly gathering crowd began whispering among themselves.

"Lord Artorius?" Teresa appeared to be slightly shocked. "And what are those orders?"

"He wished for this woman to be brought to the capital," Seres gestured at Velvet, who narrowed her eyes at the Malak's words. Teresa eyed Velvet from top to bottom and looked less than impressed.

"Why does Lord Artorius want to meet this woman? More importantly, aren't you cold dressed like that?"

"I've just arrived from the south," Velvet quickly explained. "I wasn't aware Northgan was so cold." The daemon faked a sneeze pretty pathetically in Magilou's opinion.

"The south?" Teresa raised an eyebrow. "Then what are you doing here, when you were summoned to the capital?"

"Our ship was caught up in a storm." Seres quickly took over, before Velvet accidentally messed up even more. "Most of the crew are dead. Only a couple of passengers, those two along," Seres gestured at Magilou and Minato "survived the trip. Our ship crashed into a reef on the other side of the island and is in need of repair."

"I see." Teresa put a hand under her chin, thinking hard. In the background, the sailors had hopeful expressions on their faces, which didn't go past Teresa's cold piercing gaze. "The guild is not allowed to do any business, due to a smuggler they had in their midst. Until he is caught, guild business will keep being suspended. However, since you have orders from Lord Artorius himself, I suppose an exception must be made."

Seres did her best not to smile.

"Tell those men exactly where your ship is. And you" she addressed the sailors "see this as your chance to repent for the oversight your guild made. Do a good job and the Abbey might consider allowing your guild to do business again."

"At once Lady Teresa!" The lead sailor bowed. "Thank you for giving us this chance."

With a "Hmph," Teresa walked away towards the church, the two children following her obediently.

"My, my, aren't you lucky boys?" Magilou walked towards the group with a big grin on her face. "It sure is your lucky day."

"Lucky day?" one of the sailors asked. "I feel like I have just found the lost treasure of Davy Jones himself! Haha! Tell us where your ship is! We'll repair it in no time, you'll see!"

Minato dropped his bag to the ground and quickly searched for the map and handed the map over to Seres. The Malak pointed at the point where the ship shipwrecked. "It's right here."

"Alright. Depending on the damage your ship took, the repairs might take some time. You might wanna stay at the Inn at least overnight. We need to assert the damage first."

"Do you know where we can find a good navigator?" Velvet asked.

"Ask around the docks," one of the sailors shrugged. "There's always someone looking to make some quick money."

"Of course, Dyle used to be our navigator…" another sailor mumbled.

"What exactly happened?" Minato asked as he put the map away. "And why would the Abbey punish the entire guild for something one member did?"

The lead sailor sighed. "It's just how things are, kid. Dyle used to work for us, acted as our navigator. However, it turned out he was smuggling flamestone in our cargo and sold it to some shady guys overseas. The Abbey was the one who found out and they weren't too happy. The worst part is, when they were about to arrest him, he suddenly turned into a daemon and killed everyone in his way."

Everyone who was currently listening in had their eyes widened.

"The Abbey closed us down until they manage to capture Dyle. But with you here, we might have a chance to get back to business."

"I see…" Minato nodded. "And what happened to this Dyle?"

"He's hiding somewhere on the island. A little hint kid, keep away from the small village outside the city. That's where he was born and there's a good chance he still lurks around there."

"I see, thank you."

"Hah, we ought to thank you all. Come on, men! Enough dilly, dally. We got a ship to repair!"

"Aye!" Came the chorus response from the rest of the guild, as they made their way out of the city. The group of escapees watched them go.

"That was close. Let's hope they will be done before word of your escape reaches Teresa," Seres addressed the rest of the group.

"Maybe you should have stayed outside?" Velvet suggested.

"Maybe. But otherwise, we would be stuck on this island."

"I wonder what darling Rokurou's got up in the meantime?" Magilou spoke up.

"Let's check in on him at the weapon shop," Velvet stated and walked ahead.


	5. Chapter 5

As it turned out, while Rokurou was looking at the selection of blades the local blacksmith had to offer, he found a pair of black colored daggers. Apparently, the smith had discarded those daggers as rubbish, but after Rokurou had given them, a good polish everyone could see the real value of these blades. As a thank you, the smith had given the daemon swordsman the knives for free.

Afterward, Seres and Magilou were bringing Rokurou up to speed with the state of affairs, while Velvet herself was talking to the blacksmith with Minato standing beside her, watching.

"Sorry to say, but your blade can be considered scrap metal at this point," the smith spoke, to which Velvet waved her hand off.

"I was expecting this. After lying around in the old basement for so long without given any proper care, my brother in law can be so forgetful at times."

"I see," the smith nodded. "The gauntlet at least is in good condition. So all I'll need to do is replace the old blade with a new one. Though, I am not sure if I have anything that exactly fits your specific gauntlet regarding length and width. Do you have any specific wishes about the blade?"

Velvet shook her head slowly. "As long as it can cut things and doesn't break too easily anything will be fine for now."

"If you say so," the blacksmith shrugged. "This will take me a little while to find something, so I suggest you hit the tavern and get a drink or something. Shouldn't take me more than an hour or so."

"I'll hold you up to that," Velvet said and left the counter to go back to the larger group. Minato remained at his place for a few seconds longer, watching as the blacksmith took Velvet's Gauntlet and placed it somewhere in the back. The man behind the counter noticed Minato still standing there and called out the blue-haired boy.

"What about you? Anything I can do for you, kid? Need a whetstone for your sword maybe?"

Minato looked down at his blade, almost automatically putting a hand on the hilt. "No, just watching for now. I am a little short on money."

"Money is what makes the world go around or so they say," the blacksmith mused. "Well, you can come back at a later time when you do have some money. Or maybe you have got something you no longer need. I know a lot of merchants who will buy all kinds of junk because they know who is really interested in that kind of stuff. For example, last week I sold this old painting that my grandma had somehow gotten her grubby old hands on and just a day later, I saw some noblewoman buying the painting from the merch I sold it to."

The smith let out a chuckle and Minato smiled at the small story. "Oh, looks like your friends are waiting for you." The man pointed towards the rather colorful group of people, who were standing at the side of the street, waiting. "I should get back to work anyway. See you later."

"Later."

After Minato and the smith said their goodbyes, the boy walked back to the others.

"Well, now that we're all settled, what are we gonna do?" Rokurou asked in a cheerful tone.

"How about we some of that food I mentioned earlier?" Magilou suggested.

In response she got a very loud growling coming from the direction of where Minato was standing. The blue-haired boy in question smiled sheepishly, as the others looked at him with vaguely impressed expression because his stomach was very loud indeed.

"Haha, I think some good food would do all of us good. The stuff they served us at the prison… I don't want to think about it." The samurai swordsman's face contorted in an uncomfortable fashion.

"Urgh, you almost made me lose my appetite," the self-proclaimed witch complained. "How can those people still call themselves humans, when they fed us with… I think I don't want to remember."

"Then it is decided," Seres spoke up. "A warm meal will do all of us some good. I suggest we don't ask the abbey to provide us with any lodgings or food. If even one of the exorcists notices Rokurou's or Velvet's "unique traits," we will be in trouble."

"Then let's go to the tavern already! I feel like a skeleton that is wearing human skin as a dress!" the blonde witch complained and headed towards the building that was the tavern. Shaking his head, Rokurou followed, who in return was shortly followed by Velvet, Minato and Seres.

Since the escapees somewhat lacked in the money department, Seres opted to pay for everyone's meal. Being formerly Artorius personal Malakhim, she quickly had been able to gain access to quite the sum, before engaging in her little voyage.

The tavern the group attended was packed to the brim with people. Even before they entered the building, they could hear the chatter coming out of it. Once inside the people barely also acknowledged the newcomers. Some of them were too busy talking to each other, others were too drunk (even though Seres was sure alcohol had long since been forbidden) and the rest was busy with their food. The group managed to find a table big enough for all five of them. However, they did need to pull a couple of chairs from around other tables so all of them could take a seat.

Once that was done, they needed to wait for a bit for one of the waitresses to come around, as they were very busy with the other customers. Since they had nothing better to do, the group talked among themselves.

"So Seres, I cannot help but wonder what Artorius personal Malakhim could possibly want from a daemon like Velvet," Magilou started with a cheshire grin.

"That is none of your business," the Malak replied flatly. "I suggest you keep your curiosity in check. For own well being."

"Well, I won't say I'm not curious as well," Rokurou chimed in "but I won't pry into the matters of others."

"Well, if you won't answer my questions," Magilou turned to Minato. "You have to tell me what can of hair dye you used to get this color done. You see, I'm a little bit of a performer as a sort of side-income."

The others raised an eyebrow at that statement. "Naturally I sometimes change into different costumes and the such, but I have never managed to get my hair as well done as yours. What's your secret?"

Minato gave Magilou a flat look, before letting out a sigh. "It's my natural hair color."

The others looked at him dumbstruck.

"The doctors said it was some kind of gene defect that caused this to happen. It's not even that uncommon from where I'm from." He shrugged. "Hair colors, eye colors, both have gotten a lot more variations the past years in my country. No one is sure why, but no one is complaining either. It's not exactly detrimental to my health or anything."

"You must live in quite the unusual place," Rokurou commented.

"Seriously!? There are people out there who are born with this kind of thing?! Oh, I'm so jealous! Why couldn't I have been born in this country of yours?!" Magilou was using what could only be described as her "stage voice."

"Hmm… nah. I can't imagine Magilou with blue hair." The daemon samurai shook his head. "But an entire country with people having all kinds of different hair colors? Now that's something I want to see."

"Black is still the most common hair color," Minato added.

"Hello," a new voice suddenly spoke up. Looking up the others saw that one of the waitresses had approached their table. "I am sorry for the wait, but we are exceedingly busy today. But now that I am here, may I take your orders?"

There was no menu card available, so they had to ask the waitress as to what the tavern had to offer. After each of them decided what they would get, the group resumed their talking.

"How long will it take for a ship from Titania to reach Hellawes?" Velvet asked Seres, whose expression changed into a thoughtful one.

"Days at most. The storm might have given us an extra day or two, but we should leave as soon as our ship is repaired. In that time, we should find ourselves a navigator. Preferably someone that knows how to keep his mouth shut."

"Why not let Velvet just have him as her lunch?"

Minato looked over to Magilou but kept his expression neutral.

"I'd rather avoid getting unnecessary attention, while we make our way to the capital," was Seres' reply. "We will also need to get some papers."

"Papers?" everyone except Minato asked.

"Identification papers to be precise," Seres explained. "It's something the Abbey thought to keep track of the civilians. I tried to get some fake ones for Velvet and myself, but sadly complications forced me to abandon this part of my plan."

"Papers to identify a person? What's next? A license needed to drive a cart?" the samurai asked in rhetoric fashion.

"Back at home, we actually have both," Minato allowed a smile to appear on his face when the others looked at him like he made the stupidest joke in existence.

XXX

That day Seres learned something vital: Minato Arisato was a glutton. He ate no less than five plates of steak on his own. Rokurou asked how he was capable of eating so much at once, to which Minato replied he had to make up for his sleeping metabolism.

"I'm just going to pretend I didn't hear that," Velvet commented and focused entirely on her plate, which was only halfway done at this point. In truth, she didn't feel like eating anything at the moment. She didn't want to let all of that food go to waste. Besides, it did replenish her energy, even if she couldn't taste anything. This revelation had just come to her when she took her first bite of the dish. For the past three years, she had eaten nothing but daemons and had tasted their blood somehow through her arm.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I have some "errands" to run," Magilou proclaimed and got up from her table.

"We all probably have," Seres mused. "I suggest everyone prepares to the best of each of their abilities. That is if you really want to come along with us."

"I have a debt to pay off, so count me in," Rokurou explained simply.

"I'll be around," Minato said and walked out of the building with Magilou.

Once the two were outside Magilou stretched her arms and let out a content sigh. "Phew, I feel so much better after this. Still, that was pretty mean of you. Leaving poor Seres behind to pay for all of your meals."

"I'll make it up to her," Minato replied, already fiddling with his MP3 player.

"Hmmm, is that so?"

Minato didn't answer, opting to remain silent at the suggestive tone Magilou's voice had taken on. The blonde let out a disappointed sigh and glanced over to her former cellmate. "You know? I never thought I'd ever meet someone who is so interesting, yet so boring at the same time."

Minato let out an amused snort. "If you say so."

Rolling her eyes, Magilou put her hands behind the back of her head and wandered down the streets of Hellawes. Minato opted to do the same, although he did so at a much slower pace and while listening to his personal music library. The sun was already starting to set on the horizon, and if it weren't for Jack Frost's immunity to the cold, he would probably feel the cold. Luckily for some reason, persona immunities worked outside of Tartarus as well. And ever since he had gotten here, he could even freely summon his personas without too many restrictions.

Another sigh threatened to escape Minato's lips. He briefly looked at the people going back and forth on the street, doing whatever errands they had to run. It was still unclear to him as to how he had gotten here, wherever "here" was. It was a question that he had been thinking about over and over during his time in prison, but the answer had eluded him up to this day. Sure he had theories, but they were just that: theories. Time travel, dimensional travel, lying unconscious inside a hospital bed and many more. However, being stuck inside a prison cell did limit his capabilities of investigating things.

But now that he was outside, he wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to do. So far he had just gone with the flow because it at least had gotten him away from the prison. Yet, he still felt like he did when he first woke up in this place: lost and confused.

The blue-haired boy kept wandering around the city. Calling it a city was actually pretty generous in the wild card's opinion, as Hellawes wasn't even as big as some of the small countryside towns he had been in. He could probably memorize all of the important places within a day and the rest within two weeks at most. This so-called "city" was nothing compared to Iwatodai.

While Minato was trapped within his musings, he didn't notice that someone else was paying less attention to the road as he was. Before they knew it, the blue-haired boy and a red-haired woman ran into each other, resulting in both of them landing uncomfortably on the ground.

"Ow…"

"Ooof…"

("Not again…") The wild card thought to himself. It happened way too often where he was lost in thought, listening to his music, walking down the street and then ended up running into someone. From the looks of things his latest weapon was a cute redhead with green eyes and equipped with a spear. She had her hair tied up in pigtails with flower hair clippers, wore a blue vest with golden studs over a white dress with golden decorations, along with boots of the same color scheme.

"Sorry about that," Minato spoke up, stopping the music from playing. His headphones had come off anyway, and they were now loosely hanging off his neck. He got up on his feet relatively quickly and offered the woman he knocked down a hand.

"It's alright," the woman assured and accepted Minato's hand. After getting back on her feet, the woman introduced herself. "I am sorry for running into you. I am Praetor Eleanor, exorcist of the Abbey."

"Minato Arisato," Minato introduced himself. "And I wasn't really paying attention to the road either. Sorry. Are you alright?"

The exorcist smiled kindly. "I am fine, don't worry. What about you?"

"Eh, don't worry. It's only the 254th time this has happened," the blue-haired boy replied, to which the red-haired woman couldn't help but giggle.

"Really? You must be daydreaming a lot in that case."

"Not much more than regular dreaming," the boy shrugged with a smile. "I guess I just have a lot on my mind lately. The ship I was on got caught in a storm and… it wasn't pretty."

Eleanor nodded, her face becoming serious. "Yes, that storm was quite severe. I was lucky enough to have arrived in Hellawes a few days earlier. But you were caught up in that nasty weather? I guess you're lucky you arrived here safely."

"Relatively," Minato looked to the side. "The ship crashed against a reef on the other side of the island. Only five of us… survived."

Eleanor gasped in shock. However, the shock on her face was quickly replaced with realization. "You're one of the people who arrived here today. I… I am sorry for what happened to you."

"It's alright," Minato assured. "I have… I guess I have gotten used to death by now," he said with resignation in his voice.

Eleanor flinched and felt slightly uncomfortable, after hearing Minato speak that sentence. The latter decided to change the subject before things got awkward.

"So, what are you doing? Enjoying the end of a hard work day?"

Eleanor shook her head. "The work of an exorcist is never done, I am afraid. You must have heard from the guild, about the man named Dyle who turned into a daemon."

Minato nodded, his expression hardening. "I have," he nodded.

"I am going after the daemon," the redhead said firmly.

"All on your own?" the boy asked.

"Don't worry, us exorcists are trained for these kinds of situations. Plus I have my Malakhim with me, so technically speaking I won't fight him on my own." To reassure the boy in the school uniform, Eleanor summoned her two Malakhim, one of the wind element and one of the fire element. Minato visibly tensed up but managed to prevent his hands from going to the handle of his sword.

"I… see," Minato spoke slowly. He looked over from one Malak to the other and noted how their faces were their expressions were blocked by the masks they were wearing. "But still, there are a lot of daemons out there. Are you sure you three can handle them?"

Eleanor smiled kindly at his words. "As I said, this is what we exorcists were trained for. I have already faced my fair share of daemons in my career."

"If you say so, still," Minato looked up into the orange and purple sky. "It will be dark soon. I don't claim to be an expert, but is it a good idea to hunt a daemon at night?"

"Hmm?" Eleanor herself took a look at the sky and gasped. "Oh my gosh, it is that late already? I have been so preoccupied with my other duties. I completely forgot the time." The two Malakhim disappeared in two flashes of light. "Thank you, Minato. You just prevented me from doing something foolish. Oh, this is embarrassing."

"We all make mistakes," Minato reassured her. "Isn't that one of the traits that make us humans? That we learn from our mistakes?"

"Haha, you're awfully wise for someone so young."

"Nah, picked that one up from a book."

Eleanor let out a good-hearted laugh. "In any event, you're right. I should go out tomorrow morning and not when it is about to become dark. Maybe I should use the extra time to do some more research. Do you happen to know anything about the daemon Dyle?"

"Only that he was a navigator," Minato supplied. "Well, the shipwrights did say I should stay away from his hometown. Apparently, they think he might be hiding there."

"Yes, I have gathered that much already myself," Eleanor nodded. "But thank you for your cooperation. And do not worry. Dyle won't pose a threat to Hellawes for much longer. I give you my word as an exorcist." Eleanor put her fist on where her heart was positioned. "I bid you goodnight Minato Arisato."

"Good night. And be careful."

Eleanor nodded in appreciation, before turning around and walking away. Minato looked after her for a while, before he suddenly felt a presence behind him. Turning around, he saw none other than Magilou standing right in front of him. A cheshire grin was sprouting on her face.

"You know, I didn't know you could even use so many words at once in ten minutes," she mocked him. "But don't you think you're getting a little bit too friendly with the exorcist lady? After all, it won't be long before she hears about the dastardly crimes you committed."

Minato looked to the side. "If that's how it is," was his simple reply.

"Oh my, oh my, oh my," Magilou held her arms up in a fake shock. "Don't tell me you're actually falling for our dear, innocent, exorcist lady."

Minato rolled his eyes, suddenly finding himself reminded of Junpei and his first reaction to seeing Yukari and Minato going together to school.

"Jealous that you don't look as good as her?"

That threw Magilou off. "Excuse me?" she asked in the most serious tone Minato had ever heard her use. In response to her question he just gave her a shit-eating grin, which surprisingly she countered with an equally shit-eating grin. "Well played, blue boy. But a witch doesn't give up so easily," she proclaimed and pointed a finger at him.

Minato's grin turned into a smile. Magilou had always amused him with her antics back at the prison island, even though he rarely had shown any apparent reaction. This was due to him having trouble to cope with the entire situation.

"So tell me, why were you send to that place?" Magilou minded her words because a few people were passing the way by. "I already told you all my reason and Rokurou gave at least a partial explanation. Velvet is pretty obvious. So, what about you?"

And all of the sudden Minato felt his mood becoming sour. His right hand wandered towards his holster and he took out his evoker. "Magilou?"

"Yes?" the woman asked patiently, shaking her hips back and forth.

"How are daemons made?"

"Huh?"

"Or rather, how do humans turn into daemons?" Minato clarified still looking at his evoker.

"You haven't heard? It's the daemonblight," the blonde said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Daemonblight?"

"Some kinda sickness that turns humans into daemons," she explained offhandedly. "No one knows how it spreads. And a cure is at this point nothing more than a faraway dream, completely out of reach."

"...I see," Minato said after a moment. The wildcard put his evoker away and put his hands into his pockets. "I saw a girl being surrounded by some kind of black energy. I guess that was the daemonblight," he spoke slowly. Magilou raised an eyebrow, now very interested.

"Everyone around was panicking, screaming. I was totally taken off guard too. The girl grew claws and her teeth became really sharp. She reminded of a monster out of a storybook." He shook his head. "But she didn't act like one. In fact, she was crying. She screamed for her mother, her father in this distorted voice." Minato allowed himself to sigh. "I decided to approach her since no one else was doing it."

"Huh, brave of you. Or incredibly foolish."

Minato just went on with his story, ignoring the comment of the blonde. "I tried to talk to her, calm her down. I didn't say two sentences when the local exorcist arrived."

The blue-haired boy made a small pause. "He told me to step away and wanted to kill her. I… let's just say I disagreed."

"I see," Magilou nodded thoughtfully. "Well, can't say I expected such a tragic story. But then again, life is a tragedy in of itself. Tragically boring that is."

Minato looked up from the ground and gave Magilou a studying gaze. "Is that really what you think?"

"What? Are you offended? To be honest, I'm only still around all of you, because all of you are a nice change of pace from the boring monotony of life."

The blue-haired boy tilted his head, his expression having become neutral. Magilou was looking at the boy with an equally neutral expression for a couple of minutes, that is until she got bored of it and let out a big yawn.

"Well, that was an enlightening conversation. But I think I'll be checking out our new lodgings. It's been years since I slept in a real bed." With those words being spoken, the self-proclaimed witch turned around and casually strolled towards the inn, where everyone else was staying. Minato stood there for a couple of more minutes, before following. He wasn't sure, but he thought he had felt a faint bond forming between Magilou and himself.


	6. Chapter 6

Velvet and Seres had managed to get a room at the local inn just for the two of us. Of course, asking the abbey for lodgings would have been a possibility and would have most likely resulted in far better quality beds. At the same time, the risk of Velvet's daemonic nature being discovered would have skyrocketed tremendously. Not to mention this way the two of them could talk to each other without the chance of an exorcist eavesdropping on them.

Velvet was placed on her bed, allowing herself a bit of comfort for the time being. Truth to be told, the desire to just lying down and letting sleep claim her was great, considering she had slept the past three years on the cold and wet ground of her cell. However before she allowed her body to relax fully, there was something she needed to know beforehand.

"You were awfully protective of that Malak back at the storage room," the daemon noted. Seres was currently looking out of the window, watching the people passing by. She was still listening to the black-haired woman at the same time.

"Velvet, aren't you at the very least a little curious why I of all people would want to help you kill Artorius?" Seres asked, getting some red bangs out of her face.

Velvet in return frowned, well she had been doing this the whole time anyway, it just deepened. The daemon woman hadn't really thought about this up to this point if she was honest. Back at the prison island, she saw a chance to escape. When their ragtag group of escapees stole the ship, she was busy trying to prevent the ship from sinking. And up until they arrived in Hellawes, she was busy watching out for daemons and planning the journey ahead. Now that she actually sat down and thought about Seres' actions so far, it became blatantly apparent that the Malakhim was acting weird in more ways than just one.

"People think us Malakhim are unfeeling," Seres spoke up again after a period of silence. "That we're just tools that can easily be replaced once broken. A lot of exorcists will happily throw away our lives for their own survival."

Seres turned to Velvet. Despite Seres' mask, the woman could see that the gaze of the redhead was hard. "There was a time were Malakhim and humans worked together hand in hand in a symbiotic fashion. But those times have long passed. Nowadays the exorcists suppress our wills, in order to turn us into their obedient little pets."

Velvet raised an eyebrow at this piece of information. That was something she had never considered in her life and how should she? Until she became a daemon, she couldn't even see the Malakhim. And all the information, albeit slim information, she had about Malaks was that they were mainly soulless beings, only there to be used by the exorcists to protect the people from daemons.

"If the exorcists suppress the wills of all Malakhim, how come you have regained your free will?" Velvet asked. "Artorius isn't someone to let his guard down even at the worst times."

"Hmph." Seres almost chuckled. She sat down on the oppositely positioned bed, before continuing on. "Artorius himself doesn't even know us Malakhim have our own will. And even if he does now, he and many others will continue to use for their own benefit. They don't care about us. They only care about their "reason."

"I see," Velvet nodded, understanding. "To them, you've become essential for their end goals. You're too valuable just to let you go and do your own thing, so to speak."

"Indeed," the Malakhim agreed. "I was able to break free from Artorius due to his lack of knowledge, but I doubt others will be as successful as I am. I have the added benefit that Artorius was and still is working towards a far grander goal, one that takes away a lot of his attention."

"And what do you expect of me now? If you think I will help you free all of your little Malak friends, then you can forget it," Velvet said sternly.

"Oh, I am well aware that you place your end goal above everything else," Seres said with a smirk. "But in the end, we both get what we want. Getting rid of Artorius is an important step towards the freedom of all Malakhim. I am not making myself any illusions that the enslavement of my kind will simply end because of his death."

"Huh, so this is your reason for freeing me. Whatever," Velvet waved off. "As long as you don't get in my way, I don't care. But do not expect me to spare any Malakhim just because of you," the daemon said sternly.

Seres schooled her expression. "As I said, I won't make myself any false illusion. A lot of blood will flow, be it that of humans or that of Malakhim. At least their souls will be free in the afterlife. I personally prefer death over enslavement any day."

Velvet eyed the woman on the opposite bed for a couple of minutes, before turning her attention elsewhere. Not even bothering to take off her equipment, be it weapon or clothes, the young woman laid down on her bed.

"We should get some rest while we can," the daemon said and closed her eyes. Seres allowed a smile to appear on her lips and she approached the bed in which the daemon was lying in. She then sat down on the bed and before Velvet could adequately react to the unexpected companionship, Seres held her hand above Velvet's back and started using a soothing healing arte.

"What are you doing?" Velvet asked, her voice on edge, although she couldn't deny the feeling of relaxation that went through her muscles.

"A lot of strain has been put on your body these past few years. Daemon or not, I prefer to make sure you will be at your peak at all times, in case we will be dragged into a fight."

Velvet scoffed and looked away. "Don't expect any thanks out of me," she said and closed her eyes again. Despite the words of the daemon, Seres continued smiling, as she went to work on Velvet's body. Daemon bodies may be far sturdier than that of humans or even Malakhim, but that didn't mean they were invincible. Plus Seres had been suppressing her big sister instincts this whole time. The Malak was sure she would explode if she didn't do something ASAP.

XXX

In the meantime in the lobby of the inn, Magilou and Minato just arrived from their small walk through the town and were pleasantly surprised when they heard that Seres had already reserved some rooms for them.

"What a generous Malak companion we have," Magilou had commented. "And who am I to throw her generosity to the wind? I think I will rest my heavy eyes for now. It has been a rather eventful day after all."

Minato had just nodded and the two had parted ways on the stairwell. As it turned out, the blue-haired boy was sharing a room with the samurai daemon. Said daemon was currently busy training, having taken off all clothes covering the upper part of his body. Minato had no idea where Rokurou had gotten the training sword from, but the man was currently busy swinging it in a way similar to how Minato used to train in kendo club.

"Hah! Hah! Hel! Lo! Mi! Na! To!" Rokurou greeted the boy, each syllable being accompanied by a swing of the stick.

Minato nodded back and placed the bag he had been carrying the whole time into a corner of the room. "Training?" he asked the swordsman, who nodded. After two more swings, Rokurou stopped and took on a more comfortable stand.

"It's been years since my last real fight. The battle we had back at Titania showed me just how rusted I have truly become," the daemon said with a competitive grin. "I have to admit, from what I have seen, you're not too bad of swordsman yourself."

Minato shrugged. "I attended kendo classes," was the boy's simple reply. His visible eye then wandered to the stick Rokurou was holding. "Do you have a second one of those?"

Rokurou's grin practically became feral when he heard those words. He tossed Minato the wooden sword he had been holding and produced a second one from under the bed. For a moment Minato wondered why the swordsman put them under the bed, but that was also all the time he had to think, for Rokurou was already on the offensive.

XXX

Two hours later, both human and daemon were laying on the ground, bruised and completely and utterly exhausted. Both of them were sweating bullets and their sticks had multiple cracks in them, indicating just how strong their blows.

"Phew," Rokurou let out a breath. "For someone as skinny as you, you're really strong."

"Thanks," Minato replied. "I have to be if I want to protect my friends."

"Your friends, huh?" the daemon repeated. "I guess we all have our reasons for fighting."

"Yeah…"

For a few minutes, the two simply remained on the floor and stared at the ceiling. Rokurou was the first one who recovered enough to get back up on his feet. He walked over to his belongings and produced a jug filled with sake. He filled a small cup with the alcoholic drink and drank it all in one go.

"I would offer you some of that, but I take it you're still underage."

"I don't see the appeal," Minato replied honestly and got up from the ground himself.

"You will see once you become of age," the swordsman replied and poured another cup. After emptying this one as well, he closed the bottle and put the cup away. "I hope you're ready for another round tomorrow. This was fun. It's been a while since I have sparred with someone who could keep up with me." Rokurou laughed, but then all of a sudden his expression became thoughtful. "You know, I wonder if Velvet is up for some training. Fighting on equal terms with another daemon will only help us both get stronger."

Minato thought for a moment. "People will notice you're daemons if you go all out," the blue-haired boy pointed out.

"Hmm, too true," Rokurou nodded, crossing his arms. His smile, however, returned relatively quickly as he found a solution to the small problem. "In that case, all we have to do is go out of town. I'm sure there are plenty of places where the two of us can have a spar. Maybe we could even hunt for some daemons until the ship is repaired."

"I don't think she will agree with the latter," Minato opined, sitting down onto his bed. It definitely was not as good as the one back at home, but it was a huge improvement over the prison cell he had been stuck in these past few months. There were a lot of things that the wild card had to think about, but given how the past 48 hours went for him, one could forgive the poor boy for simply lying down on the bed and almost immediately falling asleep. He managed to mumble out a "'Night," before his brain shut down completely.

Rokurou looked over at the sleeping boy and shook his head. "Eh, he needs some stamina training." Only a second later a yawn escaped the daemon's throat. "On the other hand, it'll be great to sleep in a real bed again." Having made up his mind, Rokurou followed the young one's example and crashed onto the mattress. In a matter of minutes, all was silent inside the inn of Hellawes, aside from the occasional snoring of one of the guests.

XXX

Sadly for one individual sleep wasn't an option at the moment. Oscar Dragonia was tired that much was true. However, he couldn't allow himself to go to bed just yet, even though the doctor ordered otherwise. He was sitting inside his cabin on board the "Swift Judgement," candles enlightening his room as he read through his available documents. The gentle shaking of the ship was something he had yet to get used to, but it was nothing compared to his eye that occasionally still felt like it was on fire.

Sighing in slight frustration, Oscar put one document away and retrieved the next. Specifically, he was going over the papers he had about the escaped prisoners, but sadly there wasn't much to go on. The first prisoner that had been seen fleeing with Seres and the daemon Velvet was known merely as Magilou. Officially she had been arrested as being a con artist and… assaulting Lord Melchior? Oscar's healthy eye blinked twice and he reread the report just to make sure he didn't make a mistake. But no doubt about it, this girl had assaulted none other than Lord Melchior for some baffling reason or other. It would at least explain why a con artist had been sent to his prison. Why she was escaping with a daemon, Oscar could only guess that the girl used the opportunity.

Shaking his head, the praetor retrieved the next report. Rokurou Rangetsu, a man that had become a yaksha daemon, a daemon craving for war. The name could be just a coincidence, but it was very likely that the daemon was indeed related to Lord Shigure. If so, Oscar could see how the family Rangetsu wanted to keep their own locked away, so the family's honor would be left unstained. He had more than a few prisoners like that, human and daemon alike. Rokurou probably was driven to the daemon Velvet due to the carnage she left behind. Even though Oscar still lacked a classification for the daemon, he could see how the two could work together, even if only temporarily. After all, the mood of a daemon was unpredictable at the best of times.

The next prisoner was a bit of an odd one. Not even being a fully adult, the blue-haired boy had been locked up due to protecting a daemon child from an exorcist. Stories like this were not uncommon as a lot of people didn't see the danger daemons represented, be they family members or otherwise close to the person until it was too late. The boy managed to do quite the damage and after seeing his unique abilities firsthand, Oscar could see how. Up until the prison escape, the praetor had never seen a human actively summoning a daemon. Sure there were those who aimed to become monsters for their own selfish gains, a most despicable bunch the lot, but this here was something completely different.

Oscar had made a rough sketch of the daemon "Orpheus" as it had called itself and from seeing it just on paper, it might go through as an odd looking Malakhim. Maybe it was a Malakhim and Oscar had merely judged too early. Speculation aside, no matter what ability this boy possessed, he was dangerous. This information needed to reach Lord Artorius as quickly as humanly possible.

Speaking of information, there was still the matter about the daemon Velvet. Oscar hadn't even known she was a prisoner of his until she made her escape attempt. Finding a report about her had been impossible as well, as it had either been destroyed or never existed in the first place. Oscar was no fool. He knew there were secrets out there that even he, a praetor, knew nothing about and there was always a reason for those secrets to be kept away from everyone. He speculated that this daemon had been considered so dangerous that she was best kept away for the time being. Why she hadn't been killed or any of the other daemons had not been killed, he didn't question. Sure he would like to know, but if his superiors deemed him unworthy of such knowledge than that was that.

Still, for the moment he needed to focus on informing said superiors that an escape had happened. Sadly the storm had delayed his voyage considerably, giving the daemons, humans and Seres a head start.

Oscar paused in his train of thought, as the image of the red-haired Malakhim appeared in his mind. This was the most significant piece of the puzzle that confused him. Malakhim had no free will. It was utterly inconceivable for one to have one. So how came it to be that Seres not only helped the prisoners' escape but also actively fought alongside them? Surely Lord Artorius had not ordered his Malakhim to do just that. Plus judging from her own words, it didn't seem very likely. So what exactly was going on?

But it was no use. No matter how much Oscar thought about it, the entire situation didn't make a lick of sense to, aside from the prisoners wanting to escape, that was nothing new. It wasn't even the first attempt. A few prisoners had tried their luck in the past, only to get killed in the most gruesome way possible. This was the first successful attempt and it was just successful because the daemons had help from outside.

Again his thought process returned to Seres and Oscar quickly realized that he was going in circles at this point. He needed more information if he wanted to come to any kind of satisfying conclusion. For the moment all he could do was warn the Lords that a dangerous daemon was on the loose and await their next orders.


	7. Chapter 7

By the time Rokurou had woken up, Velvet and Seres had already left the inn, as he had heard from the keeper. Minato was still sleeping inside the room the boys shared, which didn't surprise the yaksha all too much, given what the group as a whole had been through. Speaking of the group, the last person that has yet to be mentioned, the self-proclaimed witch Magilou, turned out to be sitting on one of the sofas in the lobby. She appeared to be enjoying some tea, with the cup in one hand and a biscuit in the other. The daemon decided to sit down right in front of the human girl, who looked up when she noticed the daemon.

"Morning," Rokurou greeted the blond, who swallowed the piece of the biscuit in her mouth before replying.

"Good morning. I must say this tea has a very exceptional taste to it. Well, maybe it only tastes exceptional because it is the first tea I have had in three years." The witch thought about her statement for a moment, before shrugging and throwing the rest of her biscuit into her mouth. The daemon on the other couch let out a small chuckle.

"Excuse me?" Rokurou called out to the innkeeper. "I would like the same as my friend."

"Certainly, one moment, please." The hostess bowed and made her way towards the kitchen in the back. Magilou in the meantime took a sip of her tea, eyeing the swordsman with a raised eyebrow.

"I didn't know you were one for tea," the witch commented.

"Eh, I prefer sake any day of the week, but I figured since it's been even longer for me since I had tea, I might as well have it now. My time in Titania made realize the number of things I didn't get to enjoy when I landed there."

"Mhm, true. Too true. So, where is our blue-haired friend?" Magilou asked.

"Still asleep. I can hardly blame him, to be honest. I had to force myself out of bed this morning." The daemon grinned. "Certainly didn't think I would be second to last to get up."

"Well, Minato getting up late is nothing new. I don't know how he managed to sleep on those racks they call beds back on Titania, but he usually only woke up around the time the guards would bring us our food. Or whatever it is they define as food over there." Magilou and Rokurou shuddered at the mere memory of what they had been forced to eat. It had been either eating whatever got served or starving to death. To the guards, it didn't matter either way.

"But enough about this depressing topic," Magilou put her tea away and her hands on her lap. "There are a few things I wish to do today, so I'm afraid I won't be able to chat with you any longer."

"Suit yourself," Rokurou shrugged. "I'm thinking about doing some things myself. Forgot to pick up some tools at the smith to maintain my new weapons. I can't believe I forgot something so simple the other day." The daemon shook his head.

"Well then, I'll be off. It will certainly take some time for the ship to be repaired, so don't be surprised if I return late."

"Sure. But I don't think Velvet will wait for you once the ship is repaired," the man called after the witch, as she left the building through the front door. Just at this moment, the innkeeper came out of the kitchen and brought Rokurou the tea he had ordered. There was also a biscuit lying on the small plate.

"Here you go, sir."

"My thanks."

The daemon accepted the hot drink and took a light sniff at it, before sipping on it.

"Green tea," the black haired man realized. "Not exactly my forte," he took another sip, "but I guess anything can taste good after three years in prison."

* * *

By the time Minato did finally came around to getting out of bed, Rokurou had already returned from his small shopping trip. Granted it had been brief, given that currently, he wasn't in possession in large sums of gald. Still, he had at least spent an hour outside, plus fifteen minutes of breakfast by the local baker. So when the daemon returned and saw that his blue-haired companion just started breakfast, the black-haired man could only shake his head.

"Finally awake?" the Samurai asked, approaching his companion. Minato looked up briefly and gave the man a nod, before resuming eating his breakfast. Rokurou sat down in front of the boy like he did earlier that day with Magilou.

"When you're done, how about we have another spar? I have found an alley that gives us enough space to have a proper fight."

The persona user stopped munching for a bit and thought about the proposal. He was about to give his answer when the door to the inn opened. Both the boy and man looked up and saw that Velvet and Seres had returned from their shopping trip. Velvet was carrying a small bag over her shoulder, probably filled with supplies. Instead of going to their room, as Minato expected, Seres placed herself right next to the boy, while Velvet took a seat next to her fellow daemon, dropping the bag onto the ground in the process.

"We have a problem," the Malakhim spoke up before any of the males could greet the arrivals. "The shipwrights had a look on our ship and deemed it unseaworthy. However, the abbey has offered us to use one of their ships."

Rokurou raised an eyebrow. "So, we basically just use a different ship. I don't see where the problem is."

"The problem is that it will take a few days for the abbey to prepare the ship," the redhead continued. "Days we most likely don't have."

"Ah, now I see the problem." The samurai nodded. "So, what do we do? Do we wait for them to finish and hope for the best?"

"We do the same thing we did on Titania," Velvet stated with crossed arms. "We have already decided this is the only way we have left at this point."

Minato swallowed his food and then cleared his throat, to get everyone's attention. "I hate to state the obvious, but that didn't work out very well last time. I mean, none of us know how to operate a ship. I personally can't even read a compass."

"That's true too." The daemon swordsman crossed his arms behind his head and leaned backward. "We had a lot of luck the other day. And I don't want to rely on it too much."

"We either try our luck, or this is the end," Velvet argued. "Although, it would help if we had a sailor with us."

"It's not like we can just ask one of the guild members to help us out," Seres commented. "At best we can hold a sword at their throats, which comes with its own set of problems." The Malak shook her head. "The best course of action is, and I hate to say it, to try our luck again. Since there isn't a storm raging out there, we should be able to make it to the mainland. And from there, we can walk." The woman let out a sigh. "I can't believe that this is our best option."

"Not necessarily..." Minato spoke those words slowly, his mind wandering off. Seres glanced over at the blue-haired boy.

"Do you have an idea? At this point, I am open for suggestions."

"Hmm..." Minato closed his eyes. "We need a sailor, correct?"

"Have you not been listening?" Velvet asked annoyed.

Ignoring her jab, Minato went on. "The guild won't help us, the exorcists certainly won't. Only a criminal..." Minato's eyes opened all of a sudden. "What about the smuggler?" Granted, the Wild Card wasn't looking forward to working with even more criminals, but he preferred working with said criminals, over having to go back to prison.

"Dyle? Didn't he turn into a daemon?" Velvet asked.

"We're daemons too, you know?" Rokurou pointed out. "Being turned into a daemon doesn't mean he's going on a rampage right now. I mean, he did escape the city, so I take it, he has at least some brain cells left."

"And it's not like he has anything to lose. In fact, he has a lot to gain," Velvet realized Minato's train of thought. "By being stuck on this island, the exorcists are bound to find him sooner or later. But we can offer him a chance of getting off."

"Hmm..." Seres put a hand under her chin. "I can't say that I like this plan, but I cannot deny that there is a good chance of it succeeding. Let's discuss this further upstairs."

* * *

In hindsight, it had been pretty risky talking about all the things they had talked about in the lobby. Luckily for them, it had been too crowded and too loud for anyone to have listened in on them. Or so they hoped at least, as they couldn't be too sure.

The group of four had gathered inside Velvet's and Seres' room to further talk about their course of action.

"There are tons of ships docked at the piers. So finding one won't be a problem." Rokurou started their little discussion. "The real problem will be to get away unnoticed. Not that I would mind a little brawl."

Seres shook her head. "Let's avoid conflict if at all possible. But I agree, getting away, especially unnoticed is going to be tricky. Not to mention the abbey will chase us down as soon as they notice us gone."

"We'll need a distraction then," Velvet concluded. "Something that will keep the Abbey preoccupied, while we make our escape."

"It'll need to be big in that case," the daemon samurai commented. "Unlike us, they have actual experience in sailing. We will never be able to outrun them."

"What if we flee at night?" Minato threw into the room.

"Risky, but plausible," Seres opined. "They'll have a hard time chasing us in the dark. Of course, we will have an equally hard time navigating in the dark. And there's still the risk of patrols and stationed guards to notice our escape."

"We won't have the time to kill them all," Velvet said with a frown. "And I doubt we can do it silently."

"Do we really need to kill anyone?" the only human in the room asked with a frown. Velvet in response glared at the boy.

"If you don't like this endeavor, you can gladly stay behind."

Minato glared right back at her. "We still don't need to kill anyone. In fact, I have an idea that involves us not needing even to hurt anyone."

"Do you, now?" Seres asked with clear doubt in her voice. "I am listening."

"It's simple, really. We just need to sabotage the other ships. Block the rudder chain, remove the steering wheel, make holes, rip the sails, stuff like that."

"Not a bad idea," Rokurou said impressed. "It will take some time for the Abbey to repair their ships."

"But that highly depends on the damage. And I hate to say it, but the things you mentioned can be fixed relatively quickly," the Malakhim informed Minato. The wild card thought for a moment, before speaking up.

"Even the mast?"

The redhead raised an eyebrow. "That will take considerably longer. Granted if the Abbey wants, it can enlist the help of Malakhim, but all they could help with is the heavy lifting. Luckily ships aren't made of stone... Yes, this might work."

"Hmph." The female daemon in the room crossed her arms. "You're pretty smart. I'll give you that. But even with daemon powers and Malak-Artes combined, we'll need to be quick. As soon as the first one is destroyed, the guards will sound the alarm. And given the number of ships, it will take us a minute or two to make every vessel incapable of following us."

"I can easily hold them off. And until they overwhelm us, we should be done, right?" the swordsman asked.

"Actually, I should be able to do it quickly." Everyone looked at Minato. "After all, Orpheus can just fly from ship to ship and destroy them."

"Orpheus?" the swordsman in the room asked.

"One of my personas, remember? Big, grey and white..."

"Ah, the thing with the lyre. By the way, why does this Orpheus-persona-thing have a lyre?" Rokurou asked.

Minato smiled a little bit. "According to legends, Orpheus wandered into the underworld in order to take his loved one back to the world of the living. He tamed the local monsters and even the lord of the underworld himself with his ability to play the lyre. The Lord promised Orpheus would get his lover back, but only if he led her out of the underworld without looking at her until they were outside." Minato shook his head. "The tragic thing is, he turned around when he was out, but his lover had still to step out of the building, so to speak."

"Ouch..." Rokurou winced.

"Are all of your personas based on such legends?" Seres asked, genuinely curious.

"Most of them."

"As fascinating as this is," Velvet growled, "we still need to finish our plan and execute it preferably today or at the very least tomorrow night."

"You're right," the Malak agreed. "But I think we're almost done. We can use the hole in the warehouse to get in and out of the city. We can even smuggle Dyle in that way. Now we only thing left is locating the daemon."

Everybody crossed their arms.

"The island is big, searching blindly is not an option," Rokurou stated.

"The only thing we can be sure is that he is not hiding in any town or village," the female daemon threw in. "Even if he still looks human like us, everyone on this island probably has heard of what happened."

"So, he's in the wilds. That's still a large area we would have to cover."

"Wait a minute." Seres turned her head towards Minato. "Didn't the sailors tell you yesterday that you should stay away from a small village not too far out of town?"

"Now that you mention it..." the blue-haired boy looked to the side for a second, before nodding. "Yes, they said Dyle was born there."

"Then it is reasonable to assume Dyle will be hiding in the general area since he lived there most of his life," the Malakhim concluded. "You still have the map, right?"

The human quickly went to his room and rummaged through the bag he stole from Titania until he managed to produce the map. Returning to the others, he held it out, so that everyone could have a look at it.

"There aren't any forests around. But caves are another thing. Maybe even mineshafts. And as it just so happens," Seres pointed with her finger at the spot on the map where the village is marked "this village is very close to the mountain."

"It's our best bet and we don't have much time," the female daemon stated.

"Then let's get over it one final time, so we're all on the same page," Seres said before she began summarizing their plan.

"First, we'll sneak out of the city the way we came in. I'd rather not have Teresa know we're wandering the countryside. She might feel the need to give us an escort. Second, we make our way to the village. We should take the time to gather a little information about Dyle. It might help us with when we meet Dyle. The next step naturally is finding Dyle. This is the shakiest part of our plan, as we cannot be sure. But, no matter whether we succeed in finding him or not, we'll have to return to Hellawes either at night or the following one. During the night, we will sneak onboard a ship and Minato will disable the other ones. There is a good chance that even with the element of surprise on our side we will have to fight off some guards. If all goes according to plan, we will set sail without anyone hunting us down.

Is anything unclear?"

Rokurou let out a chuckle. "Now we're talking. We have an actual plan that has an actual chance of succeeding."

"It's certainly better than the alternative," Seres agreed. "We should go."


	8. Chapter 8

"Hah!" Rokurou screamed, slashing a pig-man down with his short blade.

"Heeah!" he blocked an incoming wooden hammer with the tip of his left blade, which got it stuck and stabbed the owner of the hammer with the other blade. The enemy daemon screamed in pain and dropped his weapon. The samurai stepped close to the pig, taking the blade out of the hammer and stabbed both into the neck of his now dead opponent.

Seeing his comrades fall in battle, a third demi-human screamed in raged and charged at Rokurou with a rusty double hander in both hands. The daemon samurai turned around and smirked. He easily blocked the incoming swing by holding his blades in an x-formation. With ease, he pushed his opponent backward, causing the pig-man to stagger. With a savage grin on his face, Rokurou unleashed a flurry of slash attacks, causing blood to splatter everywhere.

Velvet caught a random arm that happened to fly her way with her own, demonic arm and devoured the piece of flesh in a matter of seconds. She, Seres and Minato had stood out of this fight on request of the swordsman, who had felt the need of a bit of a warm-up.

Minato flinched when a loose finger of all things hit his cheek, leaving a tiny smudge of blood. A little disgusted, the blue-haired boy wiped the stain away and tried to ignore the fact that a demon got hacked into small, little pieces right in front of him. The display reminded him of the time where he first summoned Thanatos, all the way back in April, and how he hacked the Magician to pieces.

Luckily as savage as Rokurou was, he was just as efficient and finished the fight rather quickly. Velvet and Seres had been watching the battle with a neutral expression, seemingly not at all bothered by what was happening in front of them. After the last daemon was dead, Rokurou proceeded to clean his blades with the surrounding snow that was not colored red already.

"Your fighting style is..." Velvet thought for a second "unique" she finished. Minato found himself nodding along subconsciously.

"Just wait until I pull out the good stuff!" Rokurou replied with a grin, sheathing his weapons. The samurai rejoined the group, looking rather proud of himself.

"Not exactly what I call a proper warm up, but it feels great to be fighting again," he said.

"Are you an asura by any chance?" Seres asked out of the blood.

"Yup, you got it!" the male daemon confirmed, putting both hands on his hips. Upon seeing the questioning looks coming from Velvet and Minato, the samurai explained. "Asuras are war daemons. We live for the fight and thrive in it. We're also pretty good at what we do if I say so myself."

"You got the confirmation from my shoulder," Minato said, holding his left shoulder. On the night when the two sparred, the blue-haired boy had received a good hit from the daemon. Even though they were using wooden swords, it still hurt a lot.

Rokurou laughed in response. "Hey, you're pretty good yourself. I hope you don't mind continuing these sessions."

"Talk about training later. We have a sailor to recruit," Velvet urged the two and walked ahead with Seres following. Minato and Rokurou gave each other a look before they decided to pursue.

The group of four was walking close to the cliff. They could hear the waves of the sea hitting the rocks at the bottom, so close were they. The group needed to be careful, as one misstep could possibly end with one of them dropping down the cliffs. Fortunately taking this risk also had its upsides. For one, the chances of meeting any random travelers were diminished, until they came close to Dyle's old hometown. For two, most daemons in the area appeared to be smart enough to know that coming close to the cliff, increased their chances of dying due to an accident. Emphasize being put on the word "most".

There was a rather funny incident, where a pack of werewolves prepared an ambush for the group of four. They had hidden themselves between a couple of rocks in a place where the passage was so narrow, the group had to go one by one in order to pass through safely. Not noticing the daemons in hiding, the ambush appeared to be perfect. The wolves jumped out of their hiding spot, surprising all four of them. None of the humanoid creatures had any time to put up any kind of defense. Velvet and Rokurou managed to draw their weapons, Minato reached for his evoker and Seres hoped she would be able to throw up a shield in the last possible second. Luckily for them, those daemons weren't the brightest of the bunch.

The werewolves put too much force into their own jumps and simply overshot. In this case, merely overshooting meant they were jumping straight down the cliff and to their doom. Panicked howls could be heard, until they were interrupted by three splashes coming from the bottom of the cliff.

"Well, that happened," Rokurou said with a chuckle.

"That was close," Minato sighed in relief, putting his evoker back into the holster. "That could have ended badly."

"I didn't think daemons would attack us here," Seres said with a shake of her head.

"That means we have to be more careful from now on," Velvet concluded simply.

"Well, I wouldn't mind a fight here and there," Rokurou said with a shrug. "We could just stick to the main land and fight our way through the daemons."

"Trust me, you will have more than enough fights soon enough," Seres told the swordsman. "Daemonblight has been spreading through the lands at an almost uncontrollable rate. Some exorcists think that in only a couple of years there will be more daemons than actual animals in the wild."

"So, does that mean sooner or later we'll all have to eat daemons, like Velvet?" the samurai asked, sounding serious.

"This depends," Seres replied equally serious. "There are a lot of factors to consider, but if the daemons aren't reduced in numbers, it will be only a matter of time, until animals will only be found inside human settlements."

"Huh, I see. Hey Velvet, do you happen to know any good recipes on-"

The black-haired swordsman found himself interrupted by the sounds of battle going on in the distance. Sparing each other a glance, the group of four quickly advanced through the snow, the sounds of fighting growing ever louder as they came closer to it.

"Look, over there!" Velvet pointed with her finger at the remains of a wooden wall that had apparently been broken down by force.

"Isn't that the village where Dyle lived?" Rokurou asked, drawing his weapons.

"I think so," Velvet replied.

"Daemons must have broken through," Seres explained while running. "Villages, especially lightly defended ones belong to the favorite hunting grounds of daemons."

After awkwardly making their way through the remains of the palisade, the group mentally prepared for the worst, as they charged into the village, weapons drawn. However, what they actually found surprised them. Bodies covered a good chunk of the square of the town, however, those bodies weren't human. Those were dead daemons lying on the ground. With gashes, burned skin, cut limbs and sometimes even crushed body parts, it looked like someone had put quite a bit of work into disposing of all of the daemons. And that someone was currently fighting against a demi-human, wielding a two-handed hammer.

Minato recognized the figure immediately as Eleanor, the woman he had run into just the other day. She was wielding a spear and dodged the incoming attacks of the clearly enraged and injured daemon with ease. After the hammer crashed into the ground, Eleanor thrust her spear forwards, piercing her opponent's heart. It let out a blood curling scream, its arms desperately trying to take the weapon out. But the damage had been done.

Eleanor herself retrieved her weapon and watched as her last opponent collapsed to the ground. She didn't look like she was injured. In fact, it only seemed like her clothes had been damaged and dirtied a bit during the fight.

"Thank goodness I was here," she spoke to herself. "But any further attacks, and..." She didn't dare finishing that sentence.

"An exorcist," Rokurou stated the obvious and looked around. "Wow. Wish I had been part of that fight. She must be powerful if she can take on all of those daemons by herself."

"Let's just hope Dyle isn't among the dead," Velvet said, inspecting each and every corpse in the vicinity.

Minato decided to step up and talk to Eleanor directly. She must have heard his footprints in the snow, as she turned around in the snow when he came close.

"Oh! It's you."

Minato nodded. "Are you alright?" he asked. "It looks like you had your work cut out for you," he gestured at the corpses littered around the snowy area.

"D-don't worry," she replied with a small smile. "I am fine." She turned her head around. "It's just... everything that is going on," she said with sadness in her voice. "Daemons run rampant in the outlands, and yet the Abbey explicitly chose not to come to the aid of those living here."

Minato frowned after hearing that.

"It's true we haven't the forces to be everywhere at once," she clenched her fists, "and the people of the outlands refuse to obey the Abbey's rules." She took in a deep breath. "It's a heartless decision, I know, but it follows from the Abbey's perfect logic and principle."

Minato's frown deepened.

"And yet, you're here and saved this village all on your own," the wild card pointed out.

"Well... I... oh!" Eleanor looked past Minato. "I didn't know you were in company. Wait a moment. Is that Seres?!"

"Indeed, I am," Seres replied in a monotone voice and stepped right next to Minato. "I am under Lord Artorius' orders to escort these people to the capital," the Malak explained.

"Ah, I see. So these are the others you have told me about the other day," Eleanor concluded.

"You know this exorcist?" Velvet asked Minato, who nodded in return.

"I met her in Hellawes," he simply explained.

"Allow me to introduce myself. Eleanor Hume. I am a praetor patrolling for the Abbey. Tell me, what business do you have here?"

"Sightseeing," Minato answered spontaneously. "We ran across a few complications and it might take a bit longer until we can finally head for the capital. So we decided to look around the island for a bit. And with protection coming from Lord Artorius himself," he gestured to Seres "what could possibly go wrong?"

"Well," Eleanor bit her lip "it is not in my right to question why Lord Artorius wishes to see you. But, might I suggest you stay in Hellawes, until you're ready to depart? There is a terrible daemon on the loose and until the Abbey has caught him, it is dangerous to go out. But do not worry, I am already investigating the matter personally. It's only a matter of time, until the daemon is dead."

"Speaking of dead daemons, something must be done about those," Seres gestured at the corpses. "With my fire Artes, I am capable of turning those corpses to ash in no time. This will allow you to continue your investigation unhindered."

Eleanor thought about the suggestion of the Malak, before nodding. "Yes, do so. But make sure the fire doesn't accidentally spread to the houses or burn anyone nearby."

"Naturally," Seres replied.

"I am sorry if this is a little sudden, but I must be off. Take care." And with those words, the redhead left the village. Rokurou and Velvet kept their expression neutral as the woman left. Once she was out of earshot, Velvet began to speak.

"She was crying," the daemon woman stated.

"Pardon?" Rokurou asked.

"That girl, she was crying."

"Really? I didn't notice."

Seres in the meantime was talking to Minato. "Help me pile those corpses together. You brought us into this situation, after all."

The blue haired boy shrugged. "It wasn't that bad of an excuse," he told the red-haired Malak, but went to work nonetheless. He dragged the corpses across the ground, leaving trails of blood. Seres observed him, waiting for him to be done, so she could lit the bodies on fire. Rokurou in the meantime made an observation.

"Where are the people?" he asked.

"Hiding inside their buildings, I assume," Velvet replied. "Unless they were turned into daemons. Then they're probably among the dead."

"True, I guess," the samurai replied. "But this exorcist, she would be a worthy opponent to fight. If only all of them were like her, then I could have the time of my life."

"It doesn't matter how strong they are," Velvet replied offhandedly "I will kill them all if necessary. And if I can't beat them, then that means my whole endeavor was for naught anyway."

After a couple of minutes of work, Minato was done and stepped away from the pile he had just created. If his clothes didn't need some serious cleaning before, they certainly did now. He was seriously considering taking off his vest and shirt and equipping Jack Frost for the rest of the time he was here.

Seres in the meantime summoned a gigantic phoenix made out of fire. The avian beast descended downwards on the pile of corpses, setting it ablaze in an instance. Rokurou whistled, impressed by the display of power. Minato shielded his face from the sudden heat.

"We have wasted enough time here. Let's go," Velvet declared.

"We should check the caves first," Seres said, referring to their earlier discussion. "Lizards don't like the cold, after all. According to the map, we have to head over there," the Malak pointed in the opposite direction of the village.

"Then let's go," Velvet said and walked ahead of the group with the others following closely behind.

As Minato began to turn around, he could see someone looking at him from behind a tree. It was a child, no doubt curiosity having gotten the better of it. Deciding it was best to act as if he hadn't seen it, he quickly caught up to the rest, who were already heading out of the village again.

"That woman said she was patrolling for the Abbey... What's that mean, exactly?" Velvet asked out of the blue. Seres was about to answer, but surprisingly, Rokurou beat her to it.

"They're handpicked agents who travel the kingdom gauging the Abbey's success in the daemon fight. They also make sure the other exorcists are conducting themselves properly. I suppose you could liken them to military police. Since the Abbey imposes so many rules on the populace, they want to show they're aboveboard."

"But if they need to police themselves, isn't that as good as announcing corruption in the ranks?" the female daemon asked.

"Nah, some would say it's more honest this way. Idealism alone won't change the world," the daemon man explained.

"It's exactly because of that," Seres confirmed. "The populace is reassured that all people in the Abbey abide by their own rules and at the same time, the Abbey can wheat out anyone they deem is best removed from the board."

"I have a question," Minato spoke up "why doesn't Abbey help the people that do not follow their teachings? Is it because they want to have absolute control? It can't be through a lack of manpower, can it?"

"Both reasons apply," Seres answered. "There are only so many exorcists and not all of them are of the same rank as Eleanor. As a praetor, Eleanor is a very high ranking member of the exorcists. However finding someone who has the capabilities of a praetor is not easy. A human can't learn becoming an exorcist. You're either born with the power or not. And the power you're born with cannot become greater."

"Hmm, very different from personas..." Minato muttered, taking out his Evoker.

"Oh? How so?" Seres asked, genuinely intrigued.

"Personas grow with you. The more you battle, the stronger they become alongside you. Personas also influence your body to a certain extent. Generally speaking, a persona user will always, be stronger, smarter, more durable, faster and somehow luckier than the average human."

"Excuse me, luckier?" Seres asked.

"Don't ask me how that works," Minato replied in a deadpan. "Somehow Personas also influence the amount of luck you have in life. Granted, it all depends on what your persona specializes in. Orpheus, for example, gives me more physical prowess, whereas Jack Frost focuses more on magic."

"That's interesting," Seres mentally noted down the information she got.

"Wait, so let's say, one of your personas makes you incredible lucky," Rokurou spoke up. "Does that mean, the chances of you coming across valuable items is also higher?"

"Items, money, gambling games," Minato listed up, "However, unless your persona really specializes in increasing your fortune, the effect is almost unnoticeable. But this ability did save my life a few times when I got a lucky hit on an enemy's weak point."

Any further discussion upon the matter was halted when they arrived at the entrance of the cave system they had been looking for. Granted Seres, Velvet and Rokurou were still curious about just to what extend a Persona could influence a person, but this topic had to wake, as the group found themselves getting charged at by very hungry looking centipede daemons.


	9. Chapter 9

The next few minutes were a chaotic mess. The swarm of centipede demons completely took the group off guard, causing them to scatter all over the place. Minato found himself retreating a little down the slope, just so he didn't get run over by the sudden mass of incoming enemies. The boy found himself reminded of a documentary, which showed a herd of rhinos stampeding over the plains in a panic. It made him wonder if there was something inside the cave that scared them.

Speculation aside, Minato found himself very quickly opposed by a couple of those centipede demons, standing in a half circle in front of him. He couldn't see any of his allies near him, but if he had to guess, they were probably busy dealing with their own share of enemy demons.

"I wonder if I'll ever catch a break," Minato wondered, readying his sword. The persona inside the sword responded to his silent call, engulfing the metal in a blue aura like it had done so many times before.

"Good thing I still have you." The sword hummed a little as if it was responding to his words.

The centipedes clocked with their mandibles in agitation and made threatening gestures with their claws. Without any more delay the centipedes came rushing towards Minato. The creatures swung their upper bodies around, trying to use the momentum of their swing to rip the human apart. Being as battle experienced as he was, Minato could easily jump out of the way, his boots making crunching noises when they landed in the snow. Two of the enemy demons misjudged their swings and got stuck in each other's crust plating.

The wild card swung the sword at the centipede closest to him, easily decapitating three claws at once from the crusty creature. The snow color changed from white to red as the blood spilled out of the monster, which was screaming in pain and curling up on the ground.

The other two monsters stopped in their advance, now wary of the sharp blade their chosen prey was carrying. The two circled around Minato, looking for the perfect angle to strike. The blue haired boy was on guard, waiting for the same opportunity. He knew that if he struck at one enemy it would go down easily, but it would leave himself open for a counterattack. He could try to swing his entire body around like Junpei tried that one time when he got surrounded. But given that this was Junpei's idea and this wasn't a video game, Minato opted to go with something else.

Staying in position, Minato poked at the enemy with his sword, trying to find a weak spot. The centipede recoiled back upon and hissed in disapproval and attacked back with a short jab. The attack didn't reach Minato. It seemed like the demon was afraid of losing its claw to the sword.

The other centipede tried to get behind the wild card, but he was quick on his feet and took a couple of steps backward, as to not lose sight of any of his opponents. A little back the other two centipedes were still interlocked in each other's carapace. None of the two appeared to be very happy about their current situation.

Back to the matter at hand, Minato was considering using his persona ability but figured it would take too long to take out his evoker and proceed with the summoning process. The boy made some tentative swings with his sword, trying to hit his opponents, but they stayed out of dodge.

Seeing as they were hesitating to come closer, the wild card decided to take the risk and go on the offensive. He ran up to one of his enemies, raising his sword in the process. The demons screeched in anger and fear. They raised their own naturally attached weapons, attempting to counterattack. However, their blades were way shorter than Minato's short sword. Plus his blade had already proven to be sharp enough to cut through their carapace like a hot knife through butter. But even he was surprised to see as to how easy it was for him to decapitate the two demons in just one fell swoop. Even the shadows took more than one cut to finish with this blade, well, the stronger ones.

"I guess I should be more aggressive..." the human noted, before taking out the other demons, which just managed to disentangle from one another. He also gave the demon he injured earlier a quick death, ending its agonizing screams.

When the human male looked up from his latest kill, he was surprised to see that everyone else had already killed the rest of the enemy horde. Velvet currently busied herself eating all of the corpses, a sight Minato tried to avoid to the best of his abilities. Rokurou and Seres stood at the side and watched the boy.

"Took you long enough," the demon swordsman commented off handedly. "You aren't getting tired already, are you?" he asked.

"No," Minato shook his head. "But I'm not a demon, like you. I can't take a hit and just shrug it off." The boy looked down on his clothes. "It doesn't exactly help that my armor wasn't on the prison island."

"Guess you have a point," Rokurou nodded. "Maybe you should focus on using your persona and stay behind," the swordsman suggested.

"Yeah, might be a good idea. I should have thought of this, back when we were in town. Stupid." Minato mentally slapped himself over the head. How could he, the one who was responsible for all of their equipment, forget about something so crucial as armor? Even a chain mail would have done the job for the time being.

"Making armor that fits one size takes time," Seres injected. "Time we don't have. Even if you had thought about it, it would have taken an incredible amount of luck for the blacksmith to have something of your size in his store."

"That's true, too," Rokurou nodded. "Us demons and Malakhim have it easy. Our skin is already as tough as armor. Not to mention the Artes Malaks usually use to protect themselves in battle. I bet you know a whole bunch of them."

"It was part of the job description," Seres replied.

"That aside, does anyone have any idea why these demons came out like a horde of stampeding horses?" the only human in the group asked.

"Something must have spooked them," Velvet spoke up, having finished her meal, her arm returning to its human state. "I don't know what, but if I had to guess it must have been a demon more powerful than those."

"Dyle." Seres and Rokurou reached an immediate conclusion.

"He must be really strong, if he managed to scare that many of them," Minato opined.

"Now things are getting interesting," the Yaksha said with a savage grin. "Maybe this Dyle is up for a little spar."

"We're here to recruit him, not to kill him," Velvet reminded the swordsman.

"Ah, come on. What's a little friendly spar between demons?" the male demon asked, as he followed the rest of the group inside the caves.

* * *

Magilou was not having a good day so far. While her temporary companions had left for their little fetch quest, she had busied herself with entertaining the masses with parlor tricks, while at the same time she was looking for a certain little traitor. While at first the exorcist had objected to her street performance because she had no license, the situation was easily mitigated. It was easily cleared up that she was one of the few survivors of the ship that was summoned by Lord Artorius himself. She simply had lost her papers in the storm and would get new ones soon enough.

Aside from that little side note Magilou's day had been pretty boring. Oh, it was fun entertaining the people once again, even if she was stuck to using a limited amount of parlor tricks. While she was entertaining the people, she had used her special gifts to seek out the traitor. Unfortunately, she couldn't find him anywhere. She thought she had gotten a glimpse of him the other day, but that had most likely been just some random Malak.

As Magilou was taking a break from her little street performance, she sat down on a bench, removing the snow first, before pondering about her current predicament. As long as she didn't find him, she had to stick to the group of ragtag prison escapees. Granted they were at least mildly interesting, especially the blue haired boy, but who knows how long this was going to last?

Speaking of the blue haired boy, she couldn't help but think once again about this strange ability of his. In fact, every time Bluey came to her mind her brain immediately wandered off to his powers.

Persona, the name implicated the ability had something to do with the personality of someone. The magic he used was similar to Artes, but it felt completely different, otherworldly even. The self-proclaimed witch let out a sigh. Even with what little Minato told her about his abilities, there wasn't enough for her to even hypothesis as to how this persona thing worked. She knew that artifact thing he kept around was the key to using that ability, but fat load that knowledge would help her.

She made a mental note to ask the blue haired boy to let him borrow this object for maybe a little tryout. It couldn't hurt and if it turned out that this object was all she needed to summon a persona, even better. It would be a whole new branch of magic for Magilou to study, meaning at least 2 years of less boredom. And maybe she wouldn't have a need to find that little traitor anymore. Who knows where he ended up? For all she knew he was hiding at the furthest corner of the continent, maybe down in the south, where he could ogle at pretty girls all day long.

Speaking of the south, Magilou's body was getting cold pretty fast. She mentally wished she would be wearing Minato's jacket once again. Even though the thing was pretty thin and the colors clashed with her style, it had been pretty nice to have her arms covered up by something.

"Oh well, it's lunch time anyway," the witch said out loud, as she gathered the money she made from her little street performance and walked back to the inn. "Maybe I have enough to get myself something of slightly higher quality."

* * *

Back inside the cave, the group had quickly found out a couple of interesting things about it. For one, there were huge pools of tar all over the place. One wrong step and they would be suffering a sticky death. Two, the cave was filled with crystals, which reflected the light shining in from holes in the ceiling. Three, the caves were infested with monsters.

Large groups of monsters were gathered in the bigger sections of the cave, mostly huddling together or munching on some rat or other. Seres had speculated the reason the centipedes had ran out of the cave may have been due to territorial disputes, as the group had thought other swarms of centipedes.

Right now, the four were standing in a small "hallway" and observed the monsters in the next cave. They were octopi that somehow managed to survive on land. Aside from living on land, there was no real distinction between them and their aquatic counterparts.

"That's a lot of sushi," Minato joked.

"This is getting ridiculous. I'm up for a good fight, but I won't improve if I keep fighting these weaklings," Rokurou complained.

"Then let's cut through them quickly," Velvet said, already drawing her weapon.

"Wait," Minato held his arm out. "Do you mind if I try something?" he asked, drawing his evoker.

"And what do you want to try?" the demon woman asked.

"Just a spell. I want to see if it works on those demons."

"Is it dangerous?" Seres asked.

Minato shook his head. "Worst case scenario it simply won't work."

"Well then, go ahead. Let's see what your spell can do."

Minato nodded and put the evoker against his head. Already he could feel the strain the spell would put on him very soon, as he was summoning more spiritual energy than was usually required of a persona summoning.

The eyes of Velvet, Seres and Rokurou widened, when Minato pulled the trigger. His upper body flung backwards, as if it had been hit by a cannonball. The boy almost lost his footing, but managed to catch himself. As Velvet was about to ask what the whole show had been about, white energy suddenly gathered in front of Minato's chest. The boy "caught" the energy with his arms and then threw it upwards into the air.

And then the most bizarre thing happened. Two of Minato's personas, one of which was Jack Frost, the other some pumpkin face in a witch attire, appeared right in front of the demons. A microphone was standing in front of the personas and a spotlight was shining on them.

"Ehehehehe!"

"Hee Hoo!"

First the pumpkin, then Jack Frost spoke into the microphone. The demons, who had been observing the ongoing performance with wariness, suddenly fell to the ground, letting out sounds of confusion. They weren't the only ones who were confused. The none-persona users wanted to ask Minato what all of that had been about. But he didn't give them the time to answer.

Instead, he charged ahead and used the opportunity to cut the enemy at their vital points. One after another he ran to each enemy, until everyone was dead. When he was done, he leaned against the wall, panting heavily.

Slightly concerned, the three none-humans walked up to him.

"What was that all about?" Rokurou asked.

"A..." Minato needed to catch his breath. "A fusion spell. I... I can combine the powers of certain personas and use what is called a fusion spell. It... it takes a bit more out of me than regular spells, but they're usually worth it."

"And what was that fusion spell supposed to do?" Velvet asked, only slightly stupefied. "Those things made some noise and then the demons just slumped over."

Minato chuckled. "The spell... it disorientates the enemy and causes them to lose balance. It might not seem like much, but when you suddenly trip and fall to the ground, it is most likely the end for most combatants then, right?"

"I see. The spell is supposed to give us an opportunity to strike at the enemy, while they can't defend themselves."

Once again Minato nodded. "This fusion spell is called Jack Brothers. It only has a 50% chance of working on an enemy, but it is usually well worth the risk. Even if only one enemy falls over, it gives you a massive advantage in battle."

"Interesting..." Velvet muttered. "Do you have any other fusion spells?"

"Right now? I can also use the spell Cadenza. It heals everyone to a great amount and makes you quicker on your feet for three minutes." The boy took in some deep breaths. "But I'm not in shape at the moment. I have been holding back with the fusion spells, because my stamina isn't what it used to be."

"I hear you loud and clear. Three years stuck inside a prison cell, without any exercises? I thought I would go mad after a month." Rokurou nodded understanding.

"But it looked like executing those kind of spells isn't easy for you. In fact, you almost fell to the ground," Seres reported her observations.

"It's always been like this," Minato replied. "The first few times felt like I was blowing my brains out, but nowadays I only get a mild headache. The only thing holding me back at the moment is my lacking stamina."

"Well, as fascinating as all of this is, we should keep looking for Dyle." Velvet brought everyone back on track. "Without him, it doesn't matter how many tricks you pull out of your sleeves. The exorcists will simply overwhelm us. Unless one of your personas knows how to handle a ship."

"It doesn't work that way..."

"Speaking of Dyle, do you guys think he's going to agree to our little deal?" Rokurou asked.

"What does he have to lose?" Seres asked. "If he stays here, sooner or later he is going to be killed. Going with us is the best opportunity he has."

"The best opportunity for what?" a gruff voice echoed throughout the caves. The party of four turned around and found a green, anthro lizard in sailors clothing approaching them. He was equipped with cutlass and a simple shield. His tail was swishing left and right in an aggressive manner.

"Alright ya landlubbers, I've been watching y'all ever since ya came into my cave. I heard you guys are looking for me and want something for me. Some kind of opportunity?" The lizard demon, presumably Dyle the sailor, looked at all of them in an aggressive manner. While his weapon wasn't raised that could change in a matter of moments, if the group wasn't careful.

"That's right," Velvet spoke up, going up to Dyle. "We're prisoners, who escaped from a nearby island. However, since none of us are sailors, we suffered a shipwreck and got stranded on this island. Since it is only a matter of days until our escape is reported to the local authorities, we devised a plan to escape from this island. However, this time we would like to have at least one professional sailor on our side."

"Hmph," the lizard snorted. "I see. And I guess you musta heard about me from the guild and thought I was a perfect candidate."

"Indeed," Velvet nodded. "The exorcists are going to find you sooner or later. We're offering you an opportunity to get away. Interested?"

"Depends. How exactly do you plan on getting away from here? Ya can't just steal a ship and expect the Abbey not to follow ya."

"Well, we are demons," Velvet said, revealing her demonic arm. Dyle didn't even flinch, as he had seen it in action earlier. "Our plan is simple. We strike at night. Using the tunnel you used to smuggle your wares we go into the city at night. As you have probably seen, he," Velvet pointed at Minato "has some rather unusual powers. With them, we can disable all of the other ships in no time at all, with minimal risk. We then take the remaining intact one and sail away without a worry in the world."

Dyle didn't give an immediate answer. Rather, he let out a low growl and pondered over Velvet's words. The rest didn't say anything and just waited for the inevitable response. None of them had thought that the response would come in a bout of laughter, but at the very least they knew it was a positive one.

"Ha! This is perfect! Not only do I get to leave this thrice-damned rock, I also can get back at the guild for selling me out like that! Hah, serves them right! Let's see them keeping their business, when there're no more ships to do business with!"

Another bout of laughter escaped the lizard's throat, echoing throughout the halls.

"Well, I guess we have our sailor," Minato commented.

"A Malak, two demons, a wannabe witch, a human and now a demon sailor. We really are a ragtag group of people. Can this get anymore crazy?" Rokurou asked with a grin.

"Well, I had a dog that was a persona user..."


	10. Chapter 10

Dyle had made it himself somewhat comfortable in that cave of his. There were a few busted crates with some remaining dried up meat inside of them, a barrel filled with halfway melted snow (probably acting as his drinking water), a makeshift bed, which was nothing more than a straw pile and a fireplace. The room Dyle had made his home must have been the biggest in the entire cave. Half of it consisted of nothing more than a sea of tar. Disturbingly enough, a dead man in exorcist gear was floating inside it. Minato did his best to ignore it.

"Welp, it ain't much, but it's something," the lizard in sailor clothing commented, walking ahead of the group. "We can wait here, till nightfall. The other daemons know better than to come in here."

The lizard man walked over the broken pile of boxes and carelessly threw a couple of empty ones towards the fireplace. After gathering a couple, he walked over there and smashed the boxes into bits and pieces with his foot alone.

"Not like I'll need them anymore…" the lizard muttered, as he prepped the fireplace for one last time. The others in the meantime scattered around the cave, everyone doing their own thing. Velvet actually joined Dyle at the fireplace and asked him about the supplies he had stored. Seres positioned herself a little behind Velvet. Rokurou went into an empty corner, which there were plenty in this cave and decided to fight an imaginary opponent.

As for Minato, the boy decided to go ahead and collect all of the katz-spirits floating around Dyle's home. Why Dyle himself did not remove them, Minato didn't know. Maybe the lizard just got used to them. Those things had also appeared in Hellawes, mostly in small allays and such. He had yet to find another pink chest containing the cat-like creatures. Maybe he should look harder in the future.

After having completed his task, the blue-haired boy found himself with precious little to do. Sure he still had his MP3 and miraculously the batteries had still some charge left in them. But they were fairly low at this point. Given the lack of industrialization in whatever place the Wild Card had found himself in, there was no way for him to recharge the batteries. The thought of using Zio-Spells did cross his mind. This however bore the risk of frying the delicate electronics.

As a result the human leaned against a wall and watched the others doing their own thing. Curiously enough, Velvet walked over to Dyle's food supply and eyed everything with a critical eye. Eventually the daemon gathered a couple of things, went over to the fireplace and started preparing them to be cooked. Minato raised an eyebrow at this. He wasn't expecting Velvet to be a cook. Then again, Shinjiro had not looked like it as well.

Minato shook his head, before these kinds of thoughts could enter his mind. Knowing that he would regret it later, the boy put on his headphones and wasted the rest of his batteries lives in order to listen to his music library. His MP3 didn't last very long. Around an hour and a half later the only sounds filling the cave came from Velvet and her cooking.

Rokurou finished his training and was now meditating. Dyle had left Velvet to her devices and was nursing a bottle probably containing rum or another alcoholic drink. If Minato was honest with himself, Dyle did not look all that dangerous. Although given the stuff he had seen in the past, a lot of things did no longer appear dangerous to him. Given that he housed the incarnation of Death inside of his body for ten years, one might expect the boy to fear nothing at all.

The human boy noticed a little late that he had been staring at the sailor for a little long and said lizard noticed as a result. The sailor took one more swing out of his flask, before corking it. Slightly sluggish, the former human got up on his feet (or was it claws now?) and casually approached Minato.

"Hey, small fry." Minato raised an eyebrow at the nickname.

"You kinda stick out here and I don't mean the clothes. Though, they're pretty weird, too."

The blue-haired human shrugged in response. He had a feeling he would get a lot more comments like this.

"You don' look like the kinda guy that hangs out with a bunch of daemons. What's the story?"

Minato looked to the side, contemplating the question. He didn't like thinking back to the incident that led to his arrest. A lot of stuff happened that day in a very short time span. But he guessed it couldn't hurt giving the lizard the short version.

"I saw an exorcist trying to kill a child that turned into a daemon," Minato explained. "I stopped him. But I got caught. I don't know what happened to the child."

"Oh brother…" Dyle put a hand on his face and shook his head. "If I wasn't sure before that the world is going to hell, I'd be sure now. A child getting infected with daemonblight? And all the abbey things about is getting rid of them…"

Minato nodded solemnly. It had shocked him how coldhearted the exorcist had been, when he tried to kill the child that was still crying for its mother. It had been one of those rare occasions where the boy had seen red. It was also one of those rare occasions where he could say he had killed and wasn't feeling any remorse. At that specific point in time, the exorcist had more resemblance to a daemon than the actual daemon. Too bad Minato had miscalculated the situation slightly, resorting to his arrest and eventual transfer to the prison island.

"Well, the child's probably dead by now. The exorcists ain't known for showing mercy. Trust me, I know." With his head, the lizard motioned over to the still floating body of the dead exorcist swimming in the tar. Minato didn't look.

"So that's how you got to us," Rokurou commented from the other end. "Huh, wondered how you ended up with us. You didn't look like a cold blooded killer. Guess that explains it."

Velvet opted to remain silent and instead focused on her cooking. She felt no sympathy for her unwilling accomplice. She did however felt her rage boiling up upon hearing what the exorcist had done. It almost brought up flashbacks to what Artorius had done to her brother. Luckily the task of cooking was a great distraction.

The daemon woman wasn't cooking anything spectacular. Dyle had already eaten most of the good food, without considering preserving some to get through the winter. Apparently the lizard thought he could rely on stealing from the locals in order to assure his survival. Bad planning on the lizard's part. He was lucky Velvet and her ragtag group of escapees needed his help.

Back to the matter of food, Velvet had decided to make a soup for everyone. Even though she didn't need to eat anymore and couldn't taste anything but blood at this point in time, food, especially well made food could help her restore her strength. Given that their operation would take place during the night, the group needed all the energy they could get.

Eventually food was done and everyone gathered around the fireplace to receive their meal. The group was pleasantly surprised about how well it tasted and Velvet received praise from everyone for her cooking skills. The group was especially impressed after they learned that Velvet was unable to taste anything but blood, yet still managed to make something so tasty.

"You were always a great cook," Seres commented.

"How do you know?" the daemon woman asked. "I don't remember Artorius ever allowing you to sit with us at the dining table."

"That might be the case, but I can still remember the smell of the food from back then. I'm happy to be finally able to taste your cooking for myself, even if it is something as simple as soup."

"I didn't know Malaks ate in general," the black haired woman shrugged.

"Technically speaking we don't need to. But we recover quicker from injuries and fatigue if we eat something. Generally speaking, an exorcist will only give his or her tethered Malak food, when it is absolutely necessary, for example when they're deployed in a longer mission. But otherwise, it is seen as a waste of resources by the abbey."

"Man, that's cold. Food can be such a great motivator," Rokurou said, putting his bowl down.

"The Abbey still thinks us Malakhim are nothing more than mindless puppets," Seres pointed out. "Unsurprising. Most exorcists aren't even aware they're suppressing our will, when tethering us to them."

"Huh, so that's how it is? Them exorcists are nothing more than a bunch of slavedrivers," Dyle spoke thoughtfully. "Explains why you're here." The daemon pointed at the redhead. The Malak acknowledged the statement and went back to eating.

XXX

Nighttime came early in the day. The group of escapees exited the cave at sundown, as they still wanted to be able to navigate their way back to the city without using torches. Once they arrived near the city gates, the sun had almost disappeared from the horizon. The guards had set up torches at the entrance proper. But that wasn't the only thing they set up. Ten exorcists had been deployed along with the regular guards and were watching the area.

"This is not good," Seres hissed out, the group hiding behind a small rock formation. "Oscar must have arrived and informed Theresa about our escape."

"There's a good chance they captured Magilou," Minato pointed out. "There's a good chance they interrogated her about our plans."

"So, what do we do now? Go back and think up a new plan?" Rokurou asked.

"No," Seres shook her head. "We're not considered small criminals like Dyle. The exorcists will triple their efforts to capture us. We have no choice but try to break through."

"Our only hope is that they haven't discovered the secret entrance," Velvet pointed out. "But they have most likely increased their patrols inside the city. We should go in now, as long as we have the cover of the night to our advantage."

Quickly and silently, the group made their way towards the secret entrance. Just like Velvet had hoped, there were no guards stationed at the entrance or inside the warehouse. However, it was a completely different story for the streets. Minato tentatively took a look out into the streets, by opening the creaking door very slowly. He scowled, when he saw the amount of guards patrolling the streets. Slowly he closed the door again and turned towards his comrades.

"Too many guards. It will impossible to sneak on any ship, without alerting the entire town."

The others frowned at the revelation.

"We need a distraction," Seres decided. "Someone needs to go to the front gates and distract the guards."

"They'll never make it through them," Minato immediately pointed out. "Even if we succeed in getting a ship ready, the distracters will never make it to the docks."

"That's where a never distraction will take place," the Malak replied with a smile that sent shivers down Minato's spine. "This warehouse is filled with flamestone, sulfur and other easily burnable materials. What do you think will happen if I cast a single fire art in this place?"

Everyone's eyes widened at the implications.

"We'll risk burning down the entire city," the human argued.

"Works for me," Velvet shrugged.

"And the people living here?" Minato snapped his head towards the daemon. "They will die. And if they don't, their livelihoods are going to be destroyed."

"Like I said, works for me," Velvet said in a calmness that threatened to aggravate the usually stoic boy.

"Kid, in case you haven't noticed, you're dealing with daemons here," Dyle pointed at the entire group. "There ain't a place for us with humans. They'll hunt us down like the little kid you tried to protect. Sure them people here haven't done anything to us, but neither did that kid. And yet, they killed him. And they will do the same to any of us, including you."

Minato gritted his teeth, causing some of the others to raise an eyebrow at the rare sign of emotion coming from the boy. "Isn't there another way?" he asked mostly himself and looked around. He even took out his evoker and considered the current Personas he could use.

"If there is, I am open to suggestions," Seres offered. "But if you can't come up with anything the following minute, I'm afraid we're out of options." The Malakhim sounded almost smug. Almost.

The wild card increased the grip on his evoker. He brainstormed any that entered his brain, but came up with nothing. He almost gave up hope, when suddenly his eyes landed on a barrel filled with black powder.

"Wait a minute," he spoke all of a sudden, hope entering his voice. Seres found herself slightly surprised. Judging from the tone in the teenager's voice he actually had an idea. The only question was, whether it was feasible.

"The ship's storage cargos," he began and turned to Dyle. "They have a supply of black powder inside of them, correct?"

"Well, yeah. Seas are infested with pirates and monsters. Only a fool sails without some canons strapped on deck," the lizard replied, causing Minato to grin.

"Ah, I get it!" Rokurou nodded grinning. "You want to blow up the ships, instead of the entire warehouse."

"We planned on dismantling them anyway," Minato concurred. "I can still use my persona from a safe distance to do so in quick succession. Might need a couple of shots, though."

"I think we should leave this to me. I can easily teleport in and out of the ships, before they explode," Seres explained.

"Good. It will still be a high blow to the economy. But at least the people won't be caught up in the flames." Minato let out a sigh of relief.

"Whatever. If you care so much about the people here, be my guest," Velvet shrugged. "As long as we get the same results. Now we have to decide who distracts the guards."

"Obviously Dyle can't," Seres was quick to point out. "We need him here to prepare the ship."

"If they play their hands right, they might leave some guards behind here," Minato pointed out. "In that case, someone needs to protect Dyle. The distraction team can't also be too big. They need to be fast, but also strong enough to hold off the exorcists until we're done."

There was a silence among the group, as they contemplated the situation. However, Velvet was quick to volunteer for distraction duty. Rokurou immediately followed up, due to his debt to the daemon woman.

"The two of us should be enough. I know I can hold my own easily against any of those guys. And Velvet is a beast when fighting."

"I'll take it as a compliment."

Seres nodded. "Very well. Be careful, nevertheless. Teresa is a Praetor like her brother. She is no slouch in battle and has more experience than Oscar. We will work as quickly as we can on our end."

Wordlessly, the two human looking daemons left the storehouse through the secret entrance and made their way towards the front gates. In silence the rest of the gang waited for the proverbial fireworks to start. Although, come to think of it, it would be them who were going to start the fireworks, not the other way around.

Minato leaned against the barrel that gave him the idea of blowing up the ships. The teenager was disturbed as to how easily it had seemed to the others to simply burn down the entire city. Luckily he had a last minute flash of insight, before the others could continue on. But it was scary to think that he was forced to work with people who could kill another human without giving it a second thought. Yes, he had fought the exorcists too, but that had been a necessity in his opinion. He would not thoughtlessly throw away human lives, even if it appears to be the only way he would survive. He just hoped once they got off this island, they wouldn't be thrown into a similar situation. Killing humans who were intent on killing you or innocents was one thing, but it still stung. But sacrificing innocents?

The wild card found himself brought out of his musings, when he heard screaming outside. Slowly he opened the door once again and saw a number of guards running down the street into the city proper. In approximately two minutes the streets went silent. Only the waves hitting the shore could be heard through the night. Carefully, the teenager opened the door fully. To his relief, there were virtually no guards left at the docks.

"They must think we're all attacking from the front," Seres commented. "Let's move. Dyle, chose a ship. Quickly."

"That one!" Dyle immediately pointed at the ship docked in the middle. "Small enough for a crew of our size to handle it. Follow me."

Dyle ran ahead and the other two followed. The docks were well illuminated with torches, except for the ships themselves. The lizard was smart enough to grab one torch and climbed with it on the designated ship, the human and the Malak following behind. Once on the ship, Dyle was quick to lit up the lanterns with said torch, before giving instructions to his two crewmates on how to prepare the ship.

It was a tedious task for just three people to handle, but Dyle knew what he was doing. Under his command the ship got ready to set sail fairly quickly, even with the lack of illumination. Seres and Minato pulled their weights to the best of their abilities, but more often than not, Dyle had to intercept, least they made a fatal mistake.

The trio couldn't hear any noise coming from the distance. Whether that was a good or bad sign had yet to be seen. Once Dyle deemed the ship ready to set sail, it was Seres turn to play her part. Vanishing just like she did back at the prison island, the Malak teleported from ship to ship, locating the powder storage, and setting it on fire. There was no immediate explosion or anything, but Minato had the foresight to tell everyone to get to cover. No need to die because of flying ship fragments.

But no explosion happened, at all. Instead the ships lit up like an old newspaper inside a chimney.

Seres returned once the last ship had been set on fire, startling the two males with her sudden appearance. "So far, so good. I hope they can see the smoke even in the dark."

"They will, don't worry," Dyle assured. "The fire here brightens up the place pretty good. I just they come here before we get roasted."

"Or choke to death from the smoke," Minato added, covering his mouth with his sleeve. The smoke was becoming a problem quickly, as it started to engulf the ship that was not in flames. The three passengers laid low, hoping to avoid the worst of it.

Suddenly, shouts could be heard in the distance. Looking over the railing, the three could see Velvet, Rokurou and Magilou running towards the docks. They were pursued by a whole group of exorcists.

"Looks like Magilou did get captured," Minato concluded.

"Either that or she hid and waited for an opportunity," Seres added. "Get ready. Once the others are onboard, we set sail immediately. Minato, do you think you can block incoming fire artes?"

"Pyro Jack can absorb fire." Taking out his evoker, Minato summoned the pumpkin persona, who flew to the rear of the ship, ready to eat any fire attack that came at him and/or the ship.

"Excellent. It looks like our plan is working out." The Malak allowed herself to smile.

"Let's hope it stays that way. I can see Theresa coming. And she doesn't look too happy."


	11. Chapter 11

Rokurou grit his teeth, as he and his partner in crime Velvet were running down the docks. He wasn't an idiot. He knew that he and his fellow daemon stood no chance against the mass of exorcists they were running away from. Nevertheless, he couldn't help but feel a bitter taste in his mouth. He was a warrior, first and foremost. Following a code of honor, as much honor as a daemon can have has been beaten into him even before he could start walking. Running away wasn't really an honorable way to do.

But as was stated, he wasn't an idiot. He knew his limits, most of the time anyway. Besides, killing all of the exorcists had never been part of the plan, to begin with.

"Right, so, which ship is ours?" he asked Velvet.

"The one that is not on fire, I presume," she replied.

"Hard to tell which is which."

"Are you telling me you didn't even decide where to meet up? What kind of rescue party is this?" Magilou complained though she was being ignored.

Indeed, the fire generated a lot of smoke. It made it hard to tell what ship had been taken into possession by the trio's cohorts. And it wasn't like they could stop and survey the area, not with the entourage of enemies that was following them. They were shouting among themselves incoherently. Snippets and tidbits that Rokurou's ears caught up were "daemon," "ships," "fire," and "vile." Well, if the exorcists weren't angry before by the sheer presence of the daemons, they indeed were now.

"Over there!" Velvet ran ahead, having spotted the others on a ship that was partially engulfed in smoke but had no flames coming out of it. Rokurou and Magilou followed the black-haired woman, as did pretty much the entire town's garrison. Granted, a good chunk of them were already dead, having died during the distraction operation, but that still left a good amount of people armed with sharp pointy-sticks.

"Move it!" Dyle shouted from the top of the ship. "We're ready to set sail!"

"Look out!" Minato shouted. Just in time, he had spotted a fireball that flew in Dyle's direction. Having summoned Pyro Jack earlier, in order to keep the flames in check, the boy ordered the pumpkin in a witch outfit to protect the lizard. Just in time, Minato's persona flew in front of the daemon and absorbed the fire like it was nothing.

"Holy! I owe you one, kid!" Dyle shouted as he frantically climbed to the main deck, hoping to avoid any more stray shots.

"They have a lot of pursuers," Seres stated, watching the spectacle below. "We won't be able to leave if this keeps up." Gathering her magic for a couple of seconds, Seres conjured a fireball of her own and shot. The ball hit the plank right next to which their ship was docked, blowing it up partially. The wooden plank was now no longer connected to the land. Only a small island of wood remained.

Magilou, Rokurou, and Velvet had to shield their eyes from the fragments. Teresa and her two Malakhim had it worse. They had just gotten past the spot of where the explosion occurred when it happened. As a result, all three of them got caught in the shockwave and were sent flying towards the escapees. Seeing an opportunity, both Rokurou and Velvet pointed their blades at the downed woman. When she finally recovered, she gasped and almost pierced her own throat in her shock.

"Looks like the tables have turned," Velvet commented casually.

"Why you…! Deceitful, snake!"

Velvet almost rolled her eyes at the weak insult. "I'm a daemon. What did you expect?"

Rokurou carefully glanced away from Teresa, to get a hold of the situation on the docks. It looked like the humans were stuck on the other side. None of them had the jumping capabilities of a daemon. Plus, their heavy armor made it impossible to swim even the relatively short distance. For some reason, none of them had gotten the idea to use their bows and arrows, though he certainly wasn't complaining.

"Well, it has been fun. But I'm afraid I must leave you all now. Until next time. Toodaloo!" Magilou gave the exorcist on the ground a cheery wave, before climbing onto the ship.

"Do you think I will let you escape?!" Teresa spat.

"Sorry to state the obvious, but you're not really in a position for negotiations," the daemon swordsman replied. "A shame we didn't get to fight, though. A praetor like you would have been an excellent opportunity to test my skills."

"Spare me your falls pity, daemon! Number Two! Eradicate them!"

Having been largely ignored by the others, Teresa's Malakhim had gotten up from the ground, but not done much else for some reason. Yet, now that he had received an order, the blonde Malakhim started gathering magic inside his hands and ran towards Velvet. At the same time, Teresa decided to pull a fast one and rolled into the ocean, escaping the daemon's blade.

"The kid is going to blow himself up!" Magilou shouted from the ship, recognizing the art immediately. Thinking quickly, Velvet gave the Malakhim a good kick to the head, canceling the art altogether.

"Velvet! Get on board!" Seres shouted. The ship began to move, as Dyle had unfurled the sails and gotten the anchor on board. The two daemons quickly jumped on board the vessel with their inhuman strength, finishing their escape from Hellawes.

"It's too bad. I was actually looking forward to fighting that praetor," Rokurou commented.

"Be glad you didn't have to," Seres replied. "Praetors are not to be underestimated. They are some of the highest-ranking members of the exorcists."

"Speaking of exorcists… why did you take him with you?" Minato pointed down Velvet's right arm. Everyone looked where he was pointing, and it was only then that they noticed someone standing there. Holding her hand was none other than the blonde Malakhim that tried to pull a kamikaze attack just a minute earlier. Velvet was as surprised as everybody else about this turn of events. However, there was no time for contemplation or explanation, as the sounds of explosions came from the mainland. This was followed by the sounds of cannonballs hitting the water.

"Blast!" the sailor daemon shouted. "Looks like those landlubbers still have some spunk in them! Stop chatting and help me get us away from here, or you're going to talk to the fishes real soon!"

* * *

For the following hour, the crew consisting of daemons, Malakhim, a wannabe witch, and a high-school student followed the orders of their lizard captain and got away from the island in the cold north as quickly as possible. Which was to say, it was not quick at all. Aside from Dyle, none of them had any experience sailing with a ship, not counting their previous misadventure. It was good that the group had had the foresight to sabotage the other vessels, else the Abbey would be hot on their trail right now.

As for the blonde Malak, he was surprisingly docile during all of this. They had locked him up in the brig, just to be sure, but he hadn't made any fuzz, like trying to break out using his arts. Or worse, following through with the final order he had received from Teresa.

After an hour of sailing, Dyle told the others that he got things covered from this point forward and told them to decide on a course to take. So, while the lizard was standing at the steering wheel, the others gathered on deck to discuss their current situation.

"Well, that turned out better than I expected," Rokurou was the first one to speak up. "Though we wound up with a little extra." He and Magilou shot a grin at Velvet, who huffed and crossed her arms.

"Perhaps our friend felt a little peckish and decided to grab a snack for the ride," Magilou teased.

Seres frowned a little. "There is no helping it. We have him on board now. As such, we must decide what we do with him."

"Is there any way to undo the brainwashing?" Minato threw into the ring before anyone else could make suggestions.

"What do you mean?" Seres asked.

"You're a Malakhim. And you have a will of your own. I still do not fully understand how all of this works. But from what I could gather so far, the Abbey is somehow suppressing the wills of Malakhim to use their abilities. Yet, you're the one who broke us out of the prison island. I doubt someone from the Abbey ordered you to do this."

"So, you're saying we should free him so that he could work for us?" Velvet asked. "Not a bad idea."

"I wasn't saying we should let him fight alongside us," Minato clarified. "Just to restore his will."

"Easier said than done. It was by pure chance that I managed to break free from the restrictions put on my mind. Not to mention, this isn't as simple as dispelling an art." Seres put a hand under her chin.

"If I may be so bold to point out, remember how we first met the little guy?" Magilou asked into the round. "He was wandering around the island without any supervision. I doubt the exorcist lady sent him on a mission or something to the icy wastes. He's already showing a lot of independence. For a Malak, anyway."

"Okay, let's say we do take the kid along. Is it really okay for us to do so? I mean, he's just a child," the daemon swordsman pointed out. Seres chuckled at this.

"Look at the daemon showing care for a child. The world is truly going mad."

"Hey, I may be a daemon, but that doesn't mean I lack some common decency," Rokurou chuckled.

"It could be worth a shot, I guess," Velvet shrugged, looking away. "Worst case scenario, we just get rid of him."

Minato breathed out a silent sigh of relief, glad that the kid's life was saved for the time being.

"Now then, onto another topic: our course." Seres took out a map and held it open in the middle of the circle of people. Everyone looked down, their eyes focused on the island they had just left. "We have a problem. The way to Loegres goes through this narrow path here. However, the kingdom has built a massive fortress there with a gigantic gate. It's called the Gate of Vortigern. All shipping from and to the kingdom is heavily regulated through the said gate."

"Wait. A gate big enough to block ships? How did they build something like that?" Rokurou asked.

"With the help of Malakhim, how else?" Seres asked rhetorically.

"Right, my bad."

"We can't take on an entire fortress," Minato argued. "I know it is a longer way, but can't we sail around the land?" The high-schooler trailed with his finger over the map, pointing out the course he meant they could take.

"Depends on how much food and water we have in storage. That is not to mention dodging pirates, as well as patrolling Abbey ships," Seres informed the others.

"So what? We take the land way?" Magilou groaned, slumping over. "That'll take forever! Even if we hop from town to town."

"So, no matter how we slice it, we're screwed?" Rokurou asked with a wry grin.

"Going a long way on land sounds better than crashing our ship against a fortress," Minato shrugged.

Velvet turned around and looked to their ship-expert. "Dyle, how long will it take until we hit land?" she asked.

"Depends on the wind. Between one and three days in my experience. A couple of hours if we're fortunate. Why are ya asking?" the lizard shouted down.

"We're trying to find a way to Loegres without getting killed," Rokurou was the one who replied.

"Loegres?! The only way there is through the Gate of Vortigern! No way we're gonna make it through that!"

"We noticed! That's why we're looking for an alternative!" Magilou shouted.

"Alternative? There ain't no alternative. Not with a crew like you, at least. If I had some real sailors helping me out, hah, maybe! But no way I can sail this thing with a bunch of landlubbers that barely know the difference between starboard and port!"

The circle of escapees faced each other with varying degrees of worry.

"You know what they say: when it rains, it pours. Looks like things will never get boring for us!" Magilou grinned.

Velvet grunted. "So it's either the fortress or the going on foot."

"Neither option looks promising," the swordsman frowned.

"But on land, we at least have a chance of surviving and making it to another town," the blue-haired boy argued.

"But, it will take forever to get to Loegres."

After some time, it became apparent that they were getting nowhere. So it was mutually decided the group would think about their situation some more and make a decision when they came close to land.

Seres went under deck to retrieve the captured Malak, while the rest wandered to different corners of the ship, doing their own thing. For Minato, that meant walking to the front of the vessel and watching the ocean pass by. He was tired. Not physically tired. An entire year fighting in Tartarus had done wonders for his stamina. No, he was mentally drained.

It was unnerving to work together with people who had seemingly no trouble at all, killing an innocent or worse, multiple innocent people to achieve their goals. He was glad he could ditch those people soon enough. Sure, they had been working together so far, but it was more due to necessity than anything else that he was working with them. As soon as they reached a town, he planned to get some supplies, money and leave those people behind. From there? Well, to be honest, he had no idea what to do then. His overall goal was to find a way back to his world and maybe figure out how he got to this world in the first place. Help would be much appreciated, but he wasn't desperate enough to work together with murderers to achieve this goal. If anything, he could easily see himself going at odds with them sometime in the future. Maybe when they felt like they needed to burn down another town.

Footsteps brought him out of his musings. Turning around, he saw it was Velvet who had approached him for some reason.

"Where did you put the bag with all of our supplies?" she asked. The boy silently answered by pointing to the door that led inside the ship. Velvet walked away immediately afterward, not even giving a simple thank you. And people said he was anti-social.

* * *

Hours passed. Occasionally Dyle would bark some orders to one person or another, but most of the time, he did the manual labor himself. This was due to the incompetence the others had shown when it came to handling the ship. Dinner consisted of dried meat that Velvet had cooked and served with some potatoes she had found in the storage room.

Speaking of the storage room, it turned out they had made a poor decision when it came to taking a ship. There were barely any supplies on this ship. Enough to get them all through a week, but only if they rationed everything. Luckily neither Seres nor the young Malak needed food, so that was two less mouths to feed.

Speaking of the blonde boy, as it turned out, he had quite the fascination with the ocean. Ever since Seres had brought him up from below deck, he had spent ninety percent of the time staring out into the vast, blue unknown. The rest of the time was being used, walking to another spot to stare out.

Velvet and Seres were eyeing the blonde from afar, making sure he didn't cause any trouble.

"You shouldn't have taken him with you," Seres plainly said to Velvet.

"Why do you care?" the black-haired woman asked. "I thought you'd be happy to have the chance to free one of your fellow Malakhim."

Seres narrowed her eyes behind her mask. She took a couple of seconds composing herself before speaking up again. "Velvet, we both know why you took him with you, even if it was an accident."

Velvet didn't answer and stared out into the ocean.

"I will only say this once. He isn't your brother. It would be best for you not to get attached to him." Seres turned around. "Unless you wish to twist the knife that has stabbed your heart even further." With those words, the Malak left the daemon to her own devices. The daemon woman kept staring out into the ocean.

Minato, in the meantime, had taken a position in the crow's nest. Dyle had been insistent that someone should go up there and keep an eye on the ocean. Having nothing better to do and coincidentally avoiding doing any more chores on deck, Minato had volunteered for the position and was now keeping a semi-vigilant eye on the ocean. He found himself reminded of the playground of the first orphanage he had ever been too. There had been a fake ship set-up, and the children would play pirate a lot on that old thing. He had never participated.

Blocking the old memories away, the teenager wondered if now was a good time to charge up his mp3 with some weak zio spells. He couldn't see anything on the horizon, and he severely doubted anything would come up since it had been so quiet these past hours.

Once again, fate proved itself to have a dry sense of humor, as just as Minato was about to take out his music device, he happened to look to the back of the ship and saw something in the distance. He couldn't make out exactly what it was with his eyes alone, as it was too far away. Luckily Dyle had the foresight to give him a spyglass, which he took out.

Huh, would you look at that? There was another ship on the horizon. And it looked pretty awesome. It was made of some red wood, and it had red and white sails. It was a lot bigger than the one Minato, and the others looted from Hellawes. There were a lot of people on the ship running around the deck. The boy decided to check out the flag of the other vessel. Sure he probably wouldn't recognize any country, but he could describe it to Dyle, who might have an idea. The flag turned out to be black with a white skull on it.

"Oh, brother…" Minato mumbled. Magilou was right. When it rains, it does pour.

"We might have a problem!" he shouted down to the deck, getting everyone's attention.

"What do you mean we might?" Velvet asked.

"Well, I just spotted a pirate ship, coming from our rear!" He looked through the spyglass again. "And it looks like they're heading towards us!"


End file.
